Marat Safin

Against Gonzalez

2008-01-12T22:33:00.000Z

Hi guys!
This tourney is over. Up to the first Grand Slam of the year! AUSTRALIAN OPEN!
Marat beated Fernando Gonzalez today, with 63 63. Great match preparation for him.

By the way, the AO08 draw is made. Marat plays Ernest Gulbis in the first round. More info about that soon.

Kisses

Against Roddick

2008-01-10T16:25:00.000Z

Marat lost with 36 36 from Andy Roddick! But still it was a good match practise. And it's not over yet! Marat plays the loser of Baghdatis.vs.Gonzalez. These are two respectable players as well so good match practises for the Open!

Good luck Marat:D!

1st Round Kooyong

2008-01-09T13:37:00.001Z

YEAH! An unbelievable start for our Marat! He beated Andy Murray 61 64! Congrats Marat! A wonderful match!
Tomorrow Marat will play against Andy Roddick, as second after a start at 11.00 pm Local Time. For time differences: http://www.timeanddate.com/ or check the World Time Clock on the right;)!

For the interview afterwards: http://www.aamiclassic.com.au/files/SAFIN9JANUARY.doc

Also some pics from the match: enjoy!

Photos Kooyong and practise

2008-01-08T19:44:00.000Z

Happy new year!

2008-01-08T19:26:00.000Z

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU. I HOPE 2008 WILL BRING YOU LOTS OF JOY, HAPPINESS, LOVE AND HEALH. HOPEFULLY THIS WILL BE A GREAT YEAR FOR MARAT AS WELL, WITH LOTS OF VICTORIES.

It's a new year, a new start. Not only for Marat but also for our website. Enjoy the new colours and photos. (Don't) like it? Give your opinion in the chat box on the right>>>>>!

Just to make things clear:

Marat is at Kooyong now, he plays Murray tomorrow, as last match.
The surface-color has changed, it is blue now and some techinical stuff have changed as well.
Marat will play until Sunday at Kooyong, IF he makes the final.
Australian Open starts at Monday, draw has not been made.
After the GS, no plans are made. Tournament schedule will be made after Aussie Open, depending on his ranking afterwards.
On 27th of Januari Marat will turn 28!

A Fresh Start

2008-01-08T18:26:00.000Z

A new season, new chances. Marat looks fit and ready for a new begin. And that's what we need, a fresh start at Kooyong Open.

Marat looks good and he says he feels well and is hoping to stay this way the whole season. This contents his physical part, no injuries and no pain in the knee etc. No tennis.

I, and I hope you as well, am going to support Marat this year as good as I can, because he needs to do something this year which will be good for his mental part, the confidence. He has to be confident to win a grandslam or whatsoever. That's why he needs our help to get him over that line.

At Kooyong, AAMI Classic, Marat will face Andy Murray in the first round of Round Robin. This means a tough match, mentally and phisically. Let's not forget Murry is a great player who just won the title of Doha (tournament before Kooyong).

This tournament is more sort of like an exhibition. Marat won't get any ranking points for this tournament. It's more for match practise and preparation for the Australian Open. The tournament uses a Round Robin-system, so Marat will play at least 2 matches, depending on how many matches he wins/loses, he will move on to the nex round.

Marat will play his first match tomorrow against Andy Murray (current ranking: nr. 9). They have met once before in Cincinatti 2005. Marat won this match in three sets.
Remember this: times have changed now.

Tennis Trophy

2007-12-16T10:30:00.000Z

Marat did that exhibition this week. It probably didn't turned out Marat hoped to, but he got some experience at least. After all, he changed his way of playing.

Marat lost to Dudi Sela with: 16 46.
Marat lost to Stefan Koubek with: 26 67(5)

Koubek told the press that Marat probably was still tired of snowboarding. He was seen on the slopes for a long time! Pictures aren't there yet... maybe soon?!

News from Marat!

2007-12-04T14:00:00.001Z

Yes guys, it has been a while. Sorry for that. There wasn't really much to tell

Let's just begin with the news:

Marat climbed half a mountain, came back to watch Davis Cup semi's in Moscow against Germany, played Kremlin Cup and then Madrid Masters, no good results à season-stop.
Marat stayed in Moscow for a while. Sorting stuff out, doing things for his own.
Started training and practicing again.
Marat did not play at the Davis Cup Final against U.S.A because he had to train for himself. He is in Valencia right now with his coach. See following official news…
Davis Cup: Russia lost to U.S.A with 1-4. It was already decided on day two, the doubles with Davydenko and Andreev against the Bryan-brothers.
Marat had two weeks of fitness practice.
Marat changed racket (see also reports/news below).
Marat started to train with tennis at the end of last week in Valencia, in his . (For some great photo's, a report AND an interview with Marat, check below!)
Marat will participate on a tournament in Germany. Marat will be at the Tennis Trophy at St Anton am Arlberg from 10 – 15 December. The actual exhibition runs from 12 – 15 December. It is called "The greatest Tennis Party of the World". The players list is not yet announced, but will be on my website soon. For more information (the website is only available in German) www.tennistrophy.net

A WONDERFUL REPORT FROM VALENCIA

From: http://www.maratsafin.com/content.php?did=10&aid=39e2105607dde3a05c9faf1a5d553acd

Marat in Valencia, preparing the 2008 season

Valencia, November the 26th, 2007.

By Alexandra Cardoso for www.maratsafin.com

The Tenisval Academy, where Marat grew up as a player and where other names such as Igor Andreev, David Ferrer, Anabel Medina-Garrigues and Dinara Safina also train, is situated in an area surrounded by fields of oranges trees and near marsh lands. It's a quiet place where the only sounds to be heard come from the birds, or the occasional dog barking in one of the farms close by. The grounds are large with 12 outdoor clay courts, 2 greenset ones, a football camp, a handball court and a basketball court, and even a playground for children. In the main building you can find the offices, the restaurant/bar, the gym, and the player's lounge. Closer to the courts is the smaller building of the locker room. All around the facilities there are gardens and shaded areas with trees and grass, giving it a soothing atmosphere. Everywhere you can only see kids in tennis gear, teenagers doing fitness exercises, and hear the soft 'thwock' of balls being hit on the courts. It's the perfect place to focus on tennis and getting fit.

Basketball Court

Football Camp

Playground

Main Building

The practice

The Courts

I arrived there just in time to watch Marat's first tennis practice and during the whole time it lasted Marat and his coach Hernán Gumy practiced only forehand and backhand ground strokes.

From the start it was clear that Gumy's objective was not so much to get winners but to perfect Marat's general movement on court, his footwork and his body posture.

With every ball that Marat hit, Gumy kept talking non stop: "On tip toes, hit it on tip toes; now dance, dance! Turn around it, yes, good! Breathe, breathe! Do little steps, little steps!"

He kept constantly insisting on the technical gestures, correcting the body posture, and insisting on the finalization of each stroke as a way to prepare for the next: "Finish like this, ok? With the arms extended straight out. And don't lean back when you hit it, finish forward". He exemplified a forehand with the follow through ending over the head whilst jumping back as a gesture to avoid: "You jump back when you hit it and you'll end up taking one step backwards, and then you're at a disadvantage. No. Try to finish leaning forward, ok?"

Always positive and enthusiastic, after every round of balls Gumy would draw lines on the ground to show the position he wanted Marat to hit from, and then he would give a new sequence of strokes: "Now: two crosscourt forehands followed by one backhand down the line" or "One forehand inside out, one forehand crosscourt and one backhand down the line", "Ok, now one forehand crosscourt, one down the line and one backhand crosscourt".

They hit rounds of 8, 10, 12, 15 balls at a time for each sequence. Those sequences made Marat move constantly over the backline: from one side to other of the court, than back again, surrounding the ball to hit it from the other side, and then moving forward again for the next stroke. He sometimes made a remark here and there to clarify something but mainly stayed focused the whole time, repeating each sequence of strokes over and over again. And Gumy was constantly encouraging: "Look how nice that forehand was! Perfect, it's just like that! Good! Great, that's it!"

At intervals between rounds Gumy would ask Marat "How much?" and Marat would answer looking at a meter on his wrist: 30,... 36,… 40,… 45…

Miguel Maeso was around almost the whole time, attentive to his pupil's physical condition and he too was interested in those numbers.

Even though he was totally focused, whacking every ball with intention and power, Marat seemed to be enjoying himself. At every pause to rest and drink water, he exchanged jokes with Gumy, with Maeso and with his friend Daní (who was acting as a ballboy), and with other coaches and fitness trainers that happened to walk by. He cursed once or twice with jokes directed at Daní, to which the other one responded by pretending to hit a clownish forehand back at Marat. Everybody was working hard (Gumy and Maeso were already discussing Marat's schedule for the rest of the day), but they all kept a good mood. For example, at one point, when Gumy and Daní were picking up all the balls that were scattered around, Marat grabbed one ball and gave a wicked look at Daní, who was approaching him with a stack of balls pilled high on a racket. He made no gesture, only looked, but Daní read his mind: "Oh, come on! You're not going to hit me with that! At least let me drop the balls in the basket first!"

A little while later, it was Maeso who decided to sit on the double bench where Marat had been sitting, but he sat on the other side and almost fell flat on his back. "What the heck! This thing is dangerous!"

"Yeah, I noticed there's something wrong with that side of the bench. Take care, if you sit there you could get hurt." said Gumy.

"Marat, sit here!" was Maeso's immediate command, said jokingly!

But Marat, wisely, pretended not to listen.

We are real persons

2 hours later, when the training session ended, Marat was drenched in sweat but the spirit was positive. He confirmed the schedule for the afternoon with Miguel Maeso and Hernán Gumy and then started packing his things.

As soon as he was ready to leave the court he called out to me, saying we could talk now (I had asked earlier if he could spare a few minutes and he had agreed). We sat on the bleachers, side by side, and I started by asking him how it had been in the two weeks of fitness that he had just done:

MS: "They were ok."

AC: "What did you do exactly?"

MS: "We did 3 sessions every day of fitness and physical training. Fitness exercises, gym work, beach…"

AC: "Beach?"

MS: "Running on the beach."

AC: "And now? What will be the schedule from now on?"

MS: "Now we will be doing 4 sessions everyday, 2 of fitness and 2 of tennis/physical."

AC: "How will a typical day be, today for example?"

MS: "Well, today it was first breakfast, then leaving the hotel at 9h45, then getting here and doing fitness training, then tennis, then rest and then more fitness/physical in the afternoon."

AC: "How long will you be here for?"

MS: "Until the 27^th"[of December].

AC: "So, you're not going to the Davis Cup…"

MS: "No. I'm not ready. I'm not fit right now to face Roddick or Blake."

AC: "…and the Bryan brothers…"

MS: "…or the Bryan brothers."

At this point Marat's expression turned a bit sad when he spoke about DC. I imagine he wished he could be there to help his team as he always had before, but he didn't feel he could be a valuable asset for them at this point.

Changing subject I then asked what was that thing on his wrist that he was constantly checking during practice, and what was it measuring.

MS: "It measures the heart rate. It's important to be aware of your body. It's not a machine, so you have to pay attention to the effort because you don't want to overload your heart or your muscles."

As he was explaining this he suddenly took off his t-shirt, quite naturally, and wiped himself with it before putting on a new one, and I could see strapped across his chest a Velcro band where the heartbeat reading device was attached to.

AC: "How were your vacations?"

MS: "They were good. I had time to sort out a lot of things I usually don't have time to do because we are on the road the whole year."

AC: "And did you have time to forget about tennis? Make a 'reset' to the mind?"

He gave me a half smile: "Mainly I had time to organise everything that has to be organised. Sometimes people think it's easy for us, that all we have to do is play but we are real persons, with things we have to take care of outside of the court."

AC: "I sometimes think you guys are portrayed almost as cartoon characters, stereotypes, and not real persons."

Marat smiled: "We are real persons, with normal lives. Tennis is just our job, just like other people have their jobs. The only difference is that we are lucky to appear on TV."

I don't like to read about myself

We had gotten up and were walking towards the locker room when the conversation turned to articles and the things people write about him.

MS: "I don't like to read about myself. People have their own ideas, and that's ok. Sometimes they write good things and sometimes they write bad things, and then it doesn't matter how much you try to do to make them see how things really are because it doesn't work. You can't change how others think."

AC: "I always thought everybody has preconceived ideas about everything, so maybe that's it; they just end up writing about what they think is the truth."

MS: "Yes, but if you start paying too much attention to what people say about you, you risk getting too much involved in that, on how others see you, and that's not good for you."

The Locker Room

We had reached the locker room and I thanked him for his time and wished him all the best with his preparation for the new season. He thanked me as well, gave me a nod and a kind smile and went inside. I then came away and as I was leaving the premises I passed by 2 or 3 teenagers from the academy who were jogging along the road. I couldn't help think of all the times Marat must have done that same thing, jogging along the road that passes between the orange tree fields. Maybe he had done it already that day or was going to do it later. After all, this was just the first day of training, back at the academy!

The Grounds

OFFICIAL UPDATE, WWW.MARATSAFIN.COM

From: http://www.maratsafin.com/content.php?did=10&aid=8a15fea0edc158b540e5a283ff767686

3rd December 2007
Practice has been going very well in Valencia and Marat and Hernan Gumy are pleased with the progress. The relationship of coach and player is progressing well.

Marat's fitness training went well and he has lost 5 Kgs. He is slimmer, trimmer and raring to go.

As was seen in the photos that Alexandra Kindly provided from Valencia,(see her article Marat in Valencia preparing for 2008) Marat has changed racquets and is using the new Microgel Prestige which should be on general sale from January 2008. Marat is very very happy with this new racquet as it has a very similar feeling to the Prestige Finesse he used in 2000 and had so many good results with. It feels good to use.

He and Hernan are so pleased with the way practice has gone that they have decided that Marat needs some competitive matches before going to Australia to begin the new season.

Marat will be at the Tennis Trophy at St Anton am Arlberg from 10 - 15 December. The actual exhibition runs from 12 - 15 December. It is called the "The greatest Tennis Party of the World" and there are both male and female participants. St Anton is a well know winter sports area particularly for skiing and they have for 20 years combined this with a tennis exhibition for men and women at this time of the year. Last year Novak Djokovic was there.

As there has also been a lot of snow lately in the area, Marat is looking forward to trying snowboarding - now that he is lighter he feels he can do it! He is already a very good skier so this is something else he would like to try in wintersports. Apart from the tennis that is.

This tournament is held indoors and will be a good preparation towards starting the year in Australia.

Link to the Tournament Website is www.tennistrophy.net

The site is only available in German.

Marat will travel to Melbourne Australia on 3rd January 2008.

Report from Sara, Madrid Masters 2007

2007-11-05T21:38:00.000Z

Thanks to Sara, who went to see and support Marat during the first round of the Masters in Madrid! Unfortunately he lost there against Karlovic, but here all the pics she made! Thanks again:D!

What Sara said: "What to say about this Master? It was really amazing. I was there all the week and during seven days all my life was tennis. I watched tennis, I talked about tennis with my friends and even I dreamt with tennis, and the best thing was that I wasn't tired. I wanted more tennis, I still want more tennis on life. Marat lost his first match against Ivo Karlovic , but I have to say that he seemed to be a really good guy. And David Nalbandian. The best player of the week and a great guy as well.I will never forget this week of October '07".

Rumours

2007-10-29T15:04:00.000Z

There are some rumours about Tarpischev wanting Marat to play in DC final. But because his right wrist hurts he won't play, but if that's over in 2 weeks Marat will play. He said Marat will play doubles at least. Tarpischev thinks, without Safin they will have fewer chances to win the final!

NOTE: These are just rumours, don't forget this isn't official news!

SEASON STOP

2007-10-22T16:09:00.000+01:00

Marat descided to stop for this season. He'll have a few weeks and will practise hard afterwards. Look below for an explaination and other important stuff!

From OS: Marat was not very happy with his standard of play at the Madrid Masters and has decided after discussion with his coach Hernan Gumy and his management that it would be better to finish his 2007 season now. His mountain adventure which he thoroughly enjoyed, took him out of his rythm and also left him with no energy. He thought he was ready coming back in Moscow but found that the stress of playing back to back tournaments was too much and his body just was not ready to cope with it. He thought he could play at a good level but it didn't happen.
He will take some time off to get his energy levels back and then in 3 weeks time will meet with his coach and they will spend a long period of practice time in Valencia - cleaning up his game and working hard on his approach, his work ethic and his general attitude to the year ahead. The intention is to be ready for the Australian season. Marat knows his ranking will drop but feels it is better to get himself ready for the new season rather than push at this stage.
He will not play in the Davis Cup Final in the US. Basically the Davis Cup team left it up to him to make the decision and Marat decided that right now there are 4 better players than him who are in form and can make sure they play to the best of their ability for Russia. Recently Davydenko won Moscow again and Tursunov won in Bangkok - both on hardcourts which is the surface that the Final will be played on. Marat was proud to be involved in the run up to the Final and has every faith in his fellow players that they will perform to their very best ability for Russia and make it a hard contest against the US.
Marat would like to say thank you to all his fans for their love and support this year through the difficult times and hopes they will continue to support him as he strives to find the level he needs to play well again.

After this message from Marat on the OS some cruel guy wrote an horrible article. Read below the article and the reactions from Marat on that.

Article from www.tennis.com
Dear Marat:
What’s up? Hope all is well. You must be in a good mood today after Russia¹s upset win over England in the UEFA game, huh? Big surprise, but then it¹s never easy for a visiting team to win in Moscow.
I saw you on TV this week, at the Madrid Masters. Looking good. You’ll be rocking the ’fro in no time.
After yet another early loss in Madrid this week, is it time for Marat Safin to think about packing his bags for good?© Jasper Juinen/Getty ImagesBut listen, I’m writing on a more serious note. Let me be blunt: You’re a mess, man. You haven’t won more than two matches in a row since mid-July, and your best result this season was in February when you reached the semifinals of Las Vegas. Fitting, since you’ve been coming up craps ever since.
It’s the same story with you: another week, another miserable loss. In Madrid you, big guy, lost to an even bigger guy, Ivo Karlovic 6-3, 6-4, in 59 minutes. What, were you double-parked?
I could cut you some slack, since the 6-foot-10 Karlovic is a nightmare to play on an indoor court, but you obviously didn’t go into the match with much hope. What was it that you said? Oh, right, “I [didn’t] expect anything from this one. Just finish the year and that’s it.”
Ah, the power of positive thinking.
You’re killing me, Marat. Lately, you’ve been as committed to tennis as Hugh Hefner is to monogamy. And when you do play, it’s been painful to watch. Please, explain your flameouts this season to Feliciano Lopez, Kristof Vliegen, Janko Tipsarevic, Hyung-Taik Lee, and Nicolas Kiefer. Journeymen, each and every one of them, and you barely put up a fight. Which is more than I can say for your performance against Nicolas Mahut in Indian Wells, Calif., where you posted a bagel in the third set. That’s actually quite impressive. On some level, it’s harder to find a way to lose a set at love than it is to scratch out a game or two, especially with your firepower.
It’s all leading me to believe that you should quit tennis. I don’t mean temporarily hang up your racquet so you can go on a farcical journey in the Himalayans to regroup, reenergize, and refocus—clearly, you’re incapable of that. You should pack up and never return.
Marat, this isn’t an easy thing to say for me. Ever since you crashed the scene in 2000, blowing Pete Sampras off the court in the U.S. Open final—a victory that was at once brutal and artistic—I’ve been a big fan. No one hits a cleaner, heavier ball than you, and it’s been refreshing to have a top player with a fiery, melodramatic personality. You’ve got soul, unlike your compatriots Nikolay Davydenko and, before him, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who treat the game with a stone-cold business-like efficiency.
But your “why-me” theatrics have grown tired. Boris Becker played the role of Hamlet, too, pitching his head to the sky after a mistake as if some otherworldly power was torturing him for kicks. The difference was that Becker was a winner throughout his career.
What's with the ’tude, dude? You’re like a teenager who’s way too self-absorbed for his own good. When you were recently asked about the gambling investigation in men’s tennis, which strikes at the very core of the sport’s integrity and deserves an informed response from all of the top players, your response was weaker than an Elena Dementieva second serve. “To be honest,” you said, “I don’t really care. Whatever people do and whatever they want to do, I don’t care. If the world collapses, I don’t really care. I have enough problems myself. I can’t worry about other people’s problems.”
Never mind that this is the kind of thinking that gets us all into trouble in every facet of life – like, say, a war in Iraq – it shows a lack of respect for the sport that made you a millionaire in the first place. Even John McEnroe, Mr. Ego himself, cares (or at least pretends to care) about tennis.
Look, Marat, I know you’re hard on yourself—self-criticism is in your blood, ingrained over many formative childhood years by your mother and the severe Soviet system. Positive reinforcement? It didn’t exist in your universe. You’ve even said, “I didn’t care to play tennis, didn’t really like it.”
And I know you’ve always struggled with the high expectations that came from beating Sampras. You should be No. 1 if only you apply yourself, or so goes the conventional wisdom. It seems to me that you’ve chosen to diffuse this talk by playing so horrendously that no one can even entertain the thought of you challenging for majors anymore.
That’s a sad commentary on your career. Didn’t you get any perspective when you ditched your Davis Cup mates in September to trek up Nepal’s Cho Oyu mountain, only to quit at the base camp. I can only imagine how miserable you were, and how miserable you made your fellow hikers on that journey, when you discovered that climbing a mountain is, like, real work.
Tennis is hard work, too. You can’t keep playing meathead tennis, rallying without many changes in pace and placement, and expect to win. You’re good, but not that good.
I came across a quote yesterday from Paul Annacone that was apropos of your career. “My old boss said to me once,” Annacone says, “the definition of how good you are is in three areas: your head, your heart, and your talent level.”
What’s the average of a D, F, and A? We’re talking only slightly better than Marcelo Rios here.
Don’t laugh. He won 18 career titles; you’re at 15. Granted, you’ve got 2 majors, while Rios never won a Slam. But you both share that absurd, petulant attitude, which undermines everything you do on court.
Hey, man, it’s your career. But you’re 27, and if you can get healthy you might want to dig in for a year or two before your body, or mind, or both, totally conk out. No regrets, right? Otherwise, spare your fans the heartache and join Yevgeny at the poker table.
Later,
James

From OS:
Dear Fans
A lot of things have happened lately and with the season finishing early for Marat after some difficult times, we would like to share Marat's thoughts and vision for the upcoming year with his fans. And also to give our response to an insulting article recently published on a well known site which some of you have seen and commented on.
Marat has decided with Madrid to end his season mainly because of the following facts.First of all to give a complete rest to his wrist. It is still niggling and he does not want to further aggravate it at this stage because he does not want to go into next year with the niggle and does not want the wrist to bother him next year.Secondly he felt with all that has happened in the last year, it would be wiser to start his "off" time earlier than usual and also to be able to start his preparation much earlier to ensure than he is of maximum fitness for challenging 2008.
As we wrote in the article before he truly feels that the Davis Cup team has four players better than him and his absence will not be felt that much as there are the people willing and able to take Russia successfully through the final.
For this reason he made his decision and will stick to it. He will be supporting the team in spirit and willing them on.
Recently an article was published on the Internet by the editor of tennis.com under his "Viewpoint" which was trying to put a smear on Marat's situation plus making recommendations re things he should do for the future.This "article" was written by someone who pretends to be a fan of Marat Safin.
Neither Marat nor his website has ever in the past made a point of commenting on things that appear in the media because throughout his career Marat has always maintained a great relationship with all channels of the media - be it written, TV or radio - always been available when asked for interviews etc, respected their work and treated them with dignity.
Now for the first time an article is written on a "respected" website and this article was full of hate - really patronizing and vicious in its comments and aimed at hurting Marat, his reputation, his past contribution and achievements in the field of tennis.
Marat himself was very insulted by this article that was brought to his attention for the very reasons stated above.
To try and attempt to under estimate Marat's past achievements in tennis and for his country and to try and present him as someone who doesn't respect the game of tennis or what tennis has done for him, is totally misleading and a deliberate attempt at muck raking.
Marat loves the game of tennis ( the reason why he came back to play this year even though he had decided after the US Open to write the rest of the season off). On every occasion during interviews he has always said how much tennis has done for him and how grateful he is for the life it has given him. To imply that he doesn't care is a total misrepresentation. There aren't too many players around the world today that can proudly present two Grand Slam Titles, Five Masters Series Titles and Two Davis Cup Titles for his country.
One of the reasons why Marat's popularity has always exceeded his ranking was not only because of his cheerful smile (and he really does have one!!) but also his kindness, honesty and most of all his sensitivity which all make up the personality which so many people want around on the tour these days.
We his team, friends and fans have all been insulted by the inferences made by the writer in his "Viewpoint". As the editor - what right does he have to make such damming innuendos about Marat? And to say he should give up and go play poker is such that the man who "wrote" this has no idea as to the actual man Marat Safin is.
We are all open to criticism and opposition from others but not when it comes in a wrong and unjustified manner.
Many fans of Marat have expressed their disgust at the manner of the writing of this article and while certain points are the truth - the innuendos made are not.
Marat is the first to be aware of his situation, his obligation to tennis and the challenges still lying ahead of him. If he wasn't committed to tennis he wouldn't be even thinking of them. He looks forward that together with hard work and your (the fans) support, 2008 will be a successful year for him. More than once in his career - mainly after his injuries - there were people who slated him and said he should retire. But Marat has no need to prove anything to anyone and as it happens he enjoys and is committed to the sport of tennis he loves.
He will do his utmost to bring a smile back to the faces of his fans once again. And lets all keep holding on to that thought that the man who has brought us so much joy will do so again.
As so many people keep pointing out - tennis needs him and one insincere "fan" is not going to stop Marat's commitment to bring joy to those who love tennis.
Marat would like to say once again to his fans with deep sincerity -
"Thank you for all your support and for being there for me during this time."
Webby and his team

Nice article

2007-10-17T15:15:00.000+01:00

From: http://sport.independent.co.uk/tennis/article3067175.ece

Karlovic's peak proves beyond limited climbing skills of Safin
By Paul Newman in Madrid
Published: 17 October 2007
When you have been scaling Himalayan peaks, confronting a 6ft 10in man mountain might not seem too daunting a challenge. Ivo Karlovic, however, is in a rich vein of form and the tallest player on the men's tour needed less than an hour at the Madrid Masters here yesterday to dispose of Marat Safin, who returned recently from an expedition to climb the world's sixth highest mountain.

Not even the thin air of Europe's highest capital – Madrid is 646 metres above sea level – could help the 27-year-old Russian as he lost 6-3, 6-4 under a barrage of aces from Karlovic, who claimed his third title of the year in Stockholm on Sunday. It continued an indifferent season for Safin, who reached the third round at the Australian Open and Wimbledon but has failed to win more than one match at any other Grand Slam or Masters series event in 2007.
The former world No 1 has always been one of the tour's more unpredictable characters and when a wrist injury put him out of action after the US Open he took the opportunity to join some friends setting out to climb Cho-Oyu, an 8,201m mountain on the border between Nepal and Tibet. At the time he said he hoped the experience would "renew my resolve and my powers for tennis".
Safin scaled a 4,100m peak as part of the acclimatisation process, but when the expedition moved to base camp to begin their assault on Cho-Oyu, which would have taken a month to climb, he decided to return home. It took him five days to climb back down the mountain and return to Moscow.

"I was there for less than two weeks," Safin said. "It was a good time to decide to come back. The conditions are really tough for someone who is doing it for the first time. The second time it will be easier."

He added: "I thought it was a good time to go. It was a great experience. Next time I decide to go I will be better prepared. Maybe next year."

When asked what he had gained from the experience, Safin replied: "It's hard to explain with words. You have to be there to understand how it feels." He said he felt "rejuvenated as a person as well as a player" and quoted a Russian proverb: "It's better to see one time than to hear 100 times."

Safin won the US Open in 2000 and went to the top the world rankings the following year, but his career has been punctuated by injuries and he has not won a tournament since beating Lleyton Hewitt in the Australian Open final in 2005. His best performance this year was a run to the semi-finals in Las Vegas in February.

This was his second tournament back after returning from Kathmandu. He played in the Kremlin Cup in Moscow last week, beating Denis Matsukevitch, the world No 422, before losing to Igor Andreev in the second round.
"My aim for this season is just to finish the year, that's it," he said after his latest defeat. "I don't know where I will play next as I need to ask for a wild card. I just want to finish the year and start slowly preparing for 2008."

Karlovic, who now meets another Russian in Nikolay Davydenko, is one year older than Safin, but his career is heading in the opposite direction. This was the Croat's ninth win in his last 10 matches and he has climbed to a career-high No 24 in the world rankings. Roger Federer is the only other player who has won on three different surfaces this year.

Yesterday's tally of 17 aces took Karlovic's total for the year to 1,152. Only one player has ever hit more in a single season, Karlovic's fellow countryman Goran Ivanisevic having done so in 1996 and 1994, with 1,477 and 1,169 respectively. No wonder Britain were grateful that Karlovic did not play in last month's Davis Cup tie at Wimbledon because of a dispute with the Croatian federation.

Round 1 Madrid

2007-10-17T14:53:00.000+01:00

Marat had a tough first round: Ivo Karlovic, who won his 3rd title last week in Stockholm, Sweden. Marat did his best, but is just not fit enough for these players. And with 17 aces and 72% as first serve in, it's hard to beat someone like that if you feel low yourself. The match took less than an hour and Marat lost with: 36 46. Better next time Marat! Keep your chin up! But unfortunatley this loss is really bad (worser than other losses) because he had to defend a lot of points here (last year he reached the quarters) so this is pretty bad for his ranking. He's now nr. 36 of the world, but because of his loss yesterday... it won't get any better!

Now a bit optimistic news: Marat asked for a Wild Card (WC) for St. Petersburg, which is from 22 October till the 28th. Hopefully he can get that one! More coming soon.

Mutua Madrileña Masters Madrid

2007-10-17T14:43:00.001+01:00

Place: Madrid, Spain
Date: October 15-21, 2007
Draw Size: 48
Surface: Greenset
Prize Money: €2,082,500
Tournament Director: Manolo Santana
Ticket Hotline:+34-91-526-5776
Website: http://secure-us.imrworldwide.com/cgi-bin/b?ci=us-atpclick&cg=tp&tu=http://www.mutuamad-mastersmadrid.com

Round/Points/Money

W 500 €340,000
F 350 €170,000
SF 225 €85,000
QF 125 €42,000
R16 75 €21,250
R32 35 €11,800
R48 5 €5,930

Past Winners:
SINGLES/DOUBLES

2006
Roger Federer
Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan
2005
Rafael Nadal
Mark Knowles/Daniel Nestor
2004
Marat Safin (!)
Mark Knowles/Daniel Nestor
2003
Juan Carlos Ferrero
Mahesh Bhupathi/Max Mirnyi
2002
Andre Agassi
Mark Knowles/Daniel Nestor

Kremlin Cup: singles and doubles

2007-10-11T18:34:00.001+01:00

As you know, Marat joined the draws in the Kremlin Cup. He already played four matches: round 1 singles: beated Denis Matsukevitch with 76(2) 75, round 2 singles: lost to Igor Andreev (this was today) with 46 46.

He also played doubles with Dimtry Tursunov; round 1: beated Evgueni Korolev and Igor Kunitsyn with 75 63, round 2: beated Oliver Marach and Michal Mertinak (seeded 4^th) with 63 64. They'll now face Grosjean en Tsonga in the semi-final.

Shamil Tarpischev, captain of the Russian Davis Cup team, wanted a good double team for the Bryans (nr. 1 of the world) in the Russia-USA final in November. In the beginning, Tursunov was planning to play doubles with a whole other partner then Marat! So this could be meaning, and especially because they're doing well in this tournament, that they have a place in the team at least for the doubles!

Kremlin Cup 2007

2007-10-07T11:05:00.001+01:00

Marat is playing the Kremlin Cup 2007!

He plays singles against a qualifier in the first round!
He plays doubles with Dima and they play Evgueni Korolev and Igor Kunitsyn in the first round!
For the whole draw: http://kremlincup.ru/on-court/draws/te-m-m-doubles-z-maindraw-z-z-z-z-draw-lat.shtml
For official website: http://kremlincup.ru/index-eng.html

Enjoy this tourny everyone!

Davis Cup REPORT

2007-09-25T15:53:00.000+01:00

On this link is a great report of the DC: http://www.guyfromrussia.proboards48.com/index.cgi?board=fanreports&action=display&thread=1190711937&page=1

Don't copy words/photo's without asking the owner!!! It is allowed to put the link (just like here) on your own website or other forums. ENJOY!

Davis Cup - day 3

2007-09-23T20:05:00.000+01:00

They won with 3-2:D! Go Russia!

Today Youhzny overpowered Petzschner with 64 64 36 63! Then it was 2-2, which means they had to play a fifth decesive rubber! Andreev defeated Kohlschreiber with 63 36 60 63.

Of course our loving man, who arrived at Saturday, was there to support the team! He looks kind of exhausted (see pics) which isn't weird at all: jetlag, he just came back from climbing a mountain, long flight etc.. Still, there isn't a moment Marat looks ugly!

This means that Russia is now in the final against the US which will be played on 30 November - 2 December in the US. This means the US is in a little advantage here, because they play at home and they can choose the surface. Probably something like hard-court.. But we'll see by than who the winner is but we all know, no matter what the score says: Russia (or at least Marat) is the best!

Davis Cup Russia - Germany

2007-09-22T09:18:00.000+01:00

http://www.daviscup.com/ties/tie.asp?tie=100008938

SCORE: 1 - 1

Andreev def. Haas with 62 62 62
Davydenko lst. to Kohlschreiber with 76(5) 26 26 64 47

For all the interviews: http://www.daviscup.com/news/newsaudio.asp?articleid=14313

Letter from Marat...

2007-09-22T09:15:00.000+01:00

Dear fans
I am writing this letter on behalf of Marat who has been in touch with me in the last 48 hours and asked me to pass on this message to you all.
As you know Marat has taken an interesting step because of various reasons which he explained in his letter to you last week. And it has been an adventure - doing his acclimatisation climb and getting used to all that is part of climbing mountains.
The delegation has reached the next height of moving to the base camp for Cho-Oyu and at this stage Marat has realised several points.
First of all Marat realised that this climb is a very serious challenging issue and not just an adventure. He loves the experience and is fully into it but realises that it has to be treated with great caution and respect. And the next step is a very big one indeed.
Talking to me and to the people he is closest to in the delegation and his coach via satellite phone - he has decided that the smartest and bravest decision for him is to step down and to start a very long 5 day trip back to travel down the mountains and back to Moscow.
In Moscow he will meet next week with Hernan Gumy and after a week recovering from the altitude, he is meant to start practising again in about 2 weeks time. The wrist is well rested and all being well he will hopefully play again in Madrid.
Marat doesn't believe he will be ready in time for the Kremlin Cup although he would like very much to play there. He needs time to recover from what has been an exhausting experience. From my conversations with him I was happy to discover that he has had a tremendous time and it was a fascinating experience.
Now it would be Marat's main concern to be healthy and play professional tennis again soon as he misses it very much. We can soon expect to see Marat back on the circuit hungry for success and with a new fresh look at tennis.
I know it is very important for Marat to pass this message on to his fans and to say they will now be able to see him in the last part of the Indoor season and I can do this with delight.
Marat wants to thank all the great and amazing people in the delegation and his wishes that they will complete the challenge to the end.
While Marat is starting his long trip back - his fellow Russians will be playing in the DC semi finals against Germany and he sends wishes to them from the bottom of his heart for great success.
Best Regards
Amit

Expedition

2007-09-18T19:08:00.000+01:00

Yes my dears, it has started. Here a little report and photo's from the first day! You can also have a look on the websites below. That's where the reports are placed! Kisses

THE FIRST CLIMB OF MARAT SAFIN
September, 16.

Today at night, the team has moved from Zhangmu to a small town of Nialam (3600м), situated in gorge among high mountains. The way passes by a bad road heavy loaded by lorries. Now the road is under repair for Olympiad. After breakfast we have gone on an acclimatization climb on the nearest summit (under the name Murat) 4100 м high.The strong wind blew all the way up and at the top the rain has started.Having gone down to Nialam, all members of team have intimately congratulated Marat. It was the first climbed summit in his life. Tomorrow we will go to Shigar, which is located at height 4200 м.Today in the morning we have said goodbye to ours Sherpas which have gone by two lorries forward to establish Base camp at height 5100м.

http://www.7summits.ru/
http://www.7summits-club.com/
Best regards from NialamAlex Abramov

^^GO MARAT!^^

To all my fans out there

2007-09-15T09:44:00.000+01:00

From the OS-website: << this is the mountain I'll climb

To all my fans out there - I am writing to you from Katmandu.Yes a lot of you have heard already that I was on my way to my exciting adventure to climb Cho-Oyu, a mountain in the Himalayas in the Tibet.I feel it is important for me to fully describe to you what has been going on with me in the last few weeks as well as what are my future plans.
It is you guys who have always been an important role in my career and always been there to support me through difficult times and the oh so sweet victories. We have shared lots of times.
As you will remember I started the US Hardcourt season in Los Angeles where I also began my association with my new coach Hernan Gumy.
I would personally like to say that the co-operation with Hernan is an excellent one. I think he's a great coach and I'm delighted with the work we do together. It is only thanks to the confidence I have in him that has allowed me to go ahead with this step that I have taken and to be where I am now.
Through out the 8 weeks in the US we really tried to work on my game again. To change my game tactics to where I will be playing again my old tennis style meaning playing faster tennis, shorter points, hard hitting and playing more on the baseline rather than playing two metres away from it as I felt I was playing the last 1 and 1/2 years. I really did feel that things were improving but unfortunately through the 1st round match at the US Open - I felt again the pain in my left wrist - the same one that first started bothering me in 2003. At first I wasn't too bothered with that but during my 2nd round match, the pain got me out of focus and I felt that instead of concentrating on the match, I was solely thinking of the implications of going through all the pain and problems again.
My orthopeadic surgeon Dr. Feder from Los Angeles - flew into New York and examined me after the match. His diagnosis was a relief for me. He said I will only need 4-6 weeks rest. Luckily no extra damage had been made and I should be completely fine after that.
Talking with my coach we have realised that this season is over for me and we have made plans which I would love to share with you with regard to the preparations for coming back to next year a better player and stronger and in overall better shape.
When I got back to Moscow and my doctors in Moscow confirmed the same as Dr. Feder, the opportunity occurred to me to join the mountaineering delegation which includes some of my closest friends and I felt for the first time that this is something I really want to do outside of my tennis career.
This is not some simple vacation on the beach. I know that the physical challenge of climbing is huge. With the unique atmosphere and being away from civilisation - hopefully this will renew my resolve and my powers for tennis.
I want this to be a special experience and it is something which deep down inside I wanted to do for a long time.
Before leaving on this expedition, I ensured to close a deal with Gumy until the end of 2008 and only after he agreed and supported me in taking this step did I feel happy to carry on with my plans.
I have planned to be away for 4-6 weeks. I am truly very sorry that I will be missing the Davis Cup semi final tie which I am sure my fellow countrymen will be able to overcome even without me. At least I can say I have contributed a bit to the efforts with my trip to Chile in the beginning of the year and in the 1/4's against France I played a small role in beating Mathieu.
Gumy and I are meant to get together in Moscow at the end of October to start practising and in early November we will fly to Valencia and possibly to South America to get properly ready for the new challenge in 2008.
I can assure you all my friends and supporters that I still have in me the desire to try and make it again to the top of this game and I hope that all of you guys will be there to support me in my efforts to this.
I will definitely miss you all in the next few weeks and I ask you to support and cross your fingers for the success of my fellow Russians in the team in the Davis Cup semi final.
I will see you all again real soon.
From me somewhere above the roof of the world.
Peace to you all
Marat

Tibet (Cho-Oyu)

2007-09-14T15:16:00.000+01:00

It is still not confirmed yet, but as the news and pictures are spread everywhere, it's for sure Marat is in Nepal at the moment. He will miss the Davis Cup. Instead of going to Moscow he is now in Nepal climbing a mountain called Cho-Oyu. His expedition started today (Friday). How long this will take, why he did this and how many tourny's he will miss are all mysteries. Here some pics of last week. Buying some equipment etc. Enjoy and Marat: be carefull and have lots of fun! (CLICK TO ENLARGE!)

Davis Cup

2007-09-11T18:29:00.000+01:00

Team is announced. And Marat is not in it.. oh ooh..! More news will come as soon as there is some!

RUSSIA v GERMANY Venue: Olympic Stadium, Moscow, Russia (clay – indoors)
RUSSIA
Nikolay Davydenko
Mikhail Youzhny
Dmitry Tursunov
Igor Andreev
Captain: Shamil Tarpischev

GERMANYTommy Haas
Philipp Kohschreiber
Alexander Waske
Philipp Petzschner
Captain: Patrik Kuhnen

Update

2007-09-09T18:29:00.000+01:00

After the US Open it's time to move on. Tonight the final will be played (men's singles) and of course Federer is in it. But we shouldn't care who's in the final. Just hope for the best next time:)! Move on like we're used to! As there isn't much news lately (there isn't really something going on, so it's not that weird) I would like to cheer you up and encourage you to be Marat's biggest fan with some pics I found these days. I hope you enjoy them and think of the good times:) they will come again as long as we all keep faith. "Prepare for the worst and prepare for the best."

Davis Cup is coming soon and I'll bring you all the latest news as soon as possible. The teams will be announced soon as well. Let's hope and see!

This one was taken in spring at Palm Spring (click to enlarge):

These were taken while shopping:

Round 2 US OPEN

2007-08-30T20:39:00.000+01:00

Marat lost to Wawrinka in straight sets........ 36 36 36. Marat's next stop will be the Davis Cup in Moscow against Germany from 21-23 september. On 24 september the tournament of Mumbai will start.

Round 1 US OPEN

2007-08-26T11:11:00.000+01:00

MARAT WON!!!!!!!!!!! WITH 75 76(5) 76(7)! What a wonder full job! Marat will play either Wawrinka or Korolev, who are having a tough battle right now (five-setter)!

Interview:

For the same interview on video click on: http://www.usopen.org/en_US/interactive/console/mflash.html?targetLink=/media/video/INT_Marat_Safin_082907_480x360_001.flv&lang=undefined&localisIE=true&ref=www.usopen.org/en_US/news/interviews/2007-08-29/200708291188426999046.html&ts=1188503457375

For another interview from eurosport go to: http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/ukeurosport/index.php?rn=1929371&ch=1929371&ds=cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com and scroll down to tennis > click on Marat Safin.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.
Q. Enough going on in that match for you to lose your cool, but you didn't. Are you pleased with the way you kept your poise today?MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, pretty much. I was a little bit nervous coming into the match 'cause the guy was playing pretty well the last two months. He did a great result. Here in the States he made the final in Indianapolis, beating Roddick in semifinal, and quarterfinals in Montréal. So he was pretty solid and confident coming here. I never play against him. He's serving well, returning well, playing great from the baseline, full of confidence. Especially it's a first round, so he has nothing to lose. Anything can happen. It was pretty good.
Q. Did you ever have anything like that happen to you on match point, the sound system going off?MARAT SAFIN: No. Hopefully it will never happen again (smiling).
Q. A lot of times in the last couple years at Grand Slams you've had tough first and second round matches, paid the price later in the tournament. Was it important to get it over and done with in three sets today?MARAT SAFIN: Well, yeah. I mean, I was counting it was going to be a tough match, four sets. Didn't know want to go five sets, but it was definitely pretty close to get there. But, like I said, it's tough opponent and I'm pleased that I am going through the first match in three sets. Hopefully the next match, pretty tough also, two pretty good players. Hopefully I can continue this way and keep it short.
Q. How important is it to know you can keep your cool? Maybe proved something to yourself mentally. MARAT SAFIN: Well, my station is not really the most pleasant right now because I'm trying to defend a lot of points. I didn't really do anything special here in the States. Some bad results, bad losses. Kind of I am trying the new coach. The only thing I have in mind is to fight and hope for the best days. Since I'm practicing already for one week and a half since I finished Cincinnati, been improving a lot. So just try to keep focus, try not to get upset and just work your way, because otherwise, it's tough for me to play and play well, especially when the confidence is not there. So you need to help yourself a little bit more. So that's why I try to be a little bit more calm. But unfortunately sometimes the balls doesn't go my way. Serving at 6-4 in the tiebreak. In the third set, he was a break up on both sets. So it's kind of tough, but you have to deal with it.
Q. Your debut was 10 years ago. You won it a couple years later. You solved the Open. Why do you think you haven't been able to solve it since then?MARAT SAFIN: Well, good question. I did the semifinal the year after. I lost to Sampras; another bad loss. But, then, I don't know, I was injured a couple of times. I didn't play. And then last year was a good year for me, but I lost 7-6 in the fifth. But of course, losing match (indiscernible) final. For some reason I was not ready for it or I was not playing really well, I was just struggling or something. Something was happening to me.
Q. Do you still look back on the 2000 final as the best match of your career?MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, but who cares? It's so far in the past. It's already history. It's a long time ago. It's time to move on (smiling). I hate the people when they still live in the past and saying how great they were in, I don't know, in the past century. Who cares? I'm not this type of person. I try to move on. I try to improve and forget it. Whatever happened, happened. It was good memories, great. But you don't focus on that because there's so much going on, so many things coming to you.
Q. Do you ever think back about that tray of vodka that was rolled into the press conference after you won? Do you remember that?MARAT SAFIN: No. I was underage (smiling).
Q. Your colleagues rolled in a tray. MARAT SAFIN: They were drinking. I was just looking.
Q. You weren't drinking?MARAT SAFIN: No. Under 21. I couldn't (smiling).
Q. If you don't want to look back on it, do you look forward, see yourself doing that again? Do you see yourself winning this tournament?MARAT SAFIN: We prepare for the worst and hope for the best. It's kind of this way I'm looking forward.
Q. What is "preparing for the worst"? MARAT SAFIN: Because the worst is I will never win. Hoping for the best that there is a chance to win. So I guess whenever I have the opportunity I will take it, but unfortunately they're not coming. I'm not getting any further than the third round.For me to make quarterfinal, it's a huge, huge deal lately. So kind of not expecting anything from this tournament and nothing from this year. But, if I -- well, at least I started to play better. I think Hernan is doing a great job. He explain to me what happened. Everything what happened I think is due to my knee injury I had to deal with for two years. But basically I hope that I will have a chance to win another Grand Slam. It's tougher and tougher, but why not? There is a chance. If Federer will lose to somebody, somebody will withdraw, Nadal will have something happen to him, the door is open (smiling).
Q. You mentioned people who sort of live in the past. Do you think that happens a lot in tennis?MARAT SAFIN: Well, why you asking me this question? Because I said something before?
Q. Yes. MARAT SAFIN: No, no, I didn't really find. Thank God I didn't meet these kind of people, and I hope there is none of them in tennis because otherwise it would be pretty disappointing to explain the people of our age how beautiful was tennis like 30 years ago, for example.Every part of life, it's a new era. We are living in 2007. Who cares about -- with all due respect, we respect the explayers that have been great for tennis. But that's it. They're good. Great history. They won. Good for them. But to explain that it was better, was more interesting, it's nonsense. I guess people are moving on. They really appreciate that and respect that, I hope. I never met such a person, and I hope I will never meet.
Q. Will it matter to you 30 years from now when somebody says, Marat Safin won the US Open and somebody says, I don't care? MARAT SAFIN: Who cares? I will not care. I had been doing something else in my life and hopefully I will be happy. Also Henman is retiring. He has been great for tennis. Even though the English press was not very nice to him, I think he did very well for the English people and English tennis, because there is none of the players. Investing so many millions and they have only Henman and Murray. That's it. So I think he did pretty decent career. But, still, who will care about him in three years?
Q. His children. MARAT SAFIN: Exactly. That's the only people that care: Family.
Q. What is your motivation level right now to be the best player you can be?MARAT SAFIN: At maximum, because otherwise I won't be here. It's not like I'm struggling with the money. It's not like I need it. I'm here just because I want to play and I'm enjoying playing. I'm enjoying fighting. I'm enjoying what I'm doing.
Q. Are you motivated to play?MARAT SAFIN: Because I like to travel, you think (smiling)? Even though I'm travelling first class and business. But, still, to be on the court, to run around, to have this feeling well after you win a match, is think is the most beautiful feeling in the world you're going to get. Afterwards, when someone is retiring, I think you are going to miss this feeling. So I think it kind of attracts you. It's what is moving you. And you still want to win matches and matches, so I think the motivation is there.
Q. Short of an injury to Nadal or Federer, how do you break into that rivalry? How does another player crack in?MARAT SAFIN: Djokovic is there. Well, you have to be consistent. You have to have the opportunities. You have to be ready. You have to be motivated. You have to be hungry. You have to be really well guided with the coach and the people around, and then take your opportunities. It's pretty simple, but at the same time it's pretty tough because it's tough to be consistent during the year. It's only two people that can manage to do that: Nadal and Federer. To be in the same train with them you have to be really focused and you have to sacrifice a lot of things and you have to be doing semifinals and finals every week.And, of course, you have to choose the right calendar to play. That's the work of the coach. I think the coach, he plays a big part in it to guide the player, especially when he's young. It's a tough job.
Q. Many people have always felt that you could possibly have achieved more. Is that sacrifice too much for some people?MARAT SAFIN: Well, Agassi could have won 20 Grand Slams, for example. Sampras should have won a little bit more. There's always going to be -- Rios, for example. He should have won 10 Grand Slams, but it didn't happen. If I will tell you the situation I was in when I was 17 and I had no money, I wouldn't be here sitting. So I think I did pretty well from where I'm coming from. I'm not disappointed with my career. Of course, would be greater if I would win the two finals that I lost in the Australian Open. And, of course, it would be great to win at Roland Garros. But the circumstances that was a desperate of time, I think I did pretty well. So I don't have any regrets.
Q. What advice did you give Gumy when he decided to be your coach? MARAT SAFIN: Well, he called me, because I had nobody to travel with, to come here, because Alexander, he couldn't come. I was pretty disappointed because my tennis wasn't at my peak. So give it a shot. Why not?I think he understands. He understood actually, and he explained to me what happened because I was kind of lost and I couldn't really understand why it was happening to me. I felt like tennis has improved so much that the players are much faster, but it's not. It's just because some things I would have to change on the court, small things, just the movement because of my knee injury that I was suffering and was getting worse and worse and worse because I was trying to protect my leg. Anyway, it's details. But he understood and he explained. So I think it's on the right direction and hopefully we'll continue this way.
Q. What has been the biggest enemy in your career: Your mind or your body?MARAT SAFIN: Well, I think my body. The two injuries, because I was playing great tennis coming into Australian Open 2003 when I had problems with my wrist and 2005 when I went in Australian Open and got injured. Was getting worse, worse and worse, and I didn't know why it was happening to me till I couldn't play anymore. At that time I was playing great tennis. It kind of broke the rhythm of my career. I could have achieved more, but I didn't.
Q. What was your reaction to the investigation of Davydenko? Have you spoken with him? MARAT SAFIN: I don't care about what the people. It's their business. I don't want to be involved with that. I want to be outside of that. I don't want to hear the stories. I don't want to know anything. I'm not really interested.If Davydenko, he has to answer some questions into his life, the life of ATP, I'm going to stay out of it.
Q. This is the only major with a breaker in the fifth set. Do you think that should change? MARAT SAFIN: Of course, it should change. Of course. They should've changed last year. If I win a couple of them I would be not 25, I would be 15. This was a huge change. But unfortunately I lost all of them. Hopefully it will not happen again. Half of it is a lottery. Of course, when you don't have a confidence it's tough to win then because it's just a matter of one, two points, and the nerves of course are jumping a little bit more than a usual set.
Q. You won a challenge today. Do you still disbelieve the camera thing?MARAT SAFIN: Hawk Eye?
Q. Yes. MARAT SAFIN: What happened with it?
Q. You have never really agreed it was accurate before. MARAT SAFIN: No, well, it's much better than not to have it for sure because the serves are going pretty fast. It's pretty difficult for the chair umpire to make a good decision. You're taking such responsibility. Imagine it happens 6-All in a tiebreak in the fifth set, you want to kill the guy. If he makes a mistake and you know he is making mistake, but at least you have a chance to see it and a chance to prove it, be more relieved.
Q. So when you see it now, you're believing it more than you used to?MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, much more. Of course, I think they've been improving. It's getting better and better, more accurate. FastScripts by ASAP Sports

Pictures: Chance98 made terrific photo's of the US Open 2007 so have a look.. great really GREAT pictures of Marat there as well! Enjoy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/61096912@N00

Article:

Safin Outduels Rising Canadian Dancevic
By Neil Schlecht
Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Marat Safin, the 2000 US Open winner and former world No. 1, withstood a spirited challenge from Frank Dancevic, a Canadian qualifier playing in his first US Open, 7-5, 7-6, 7-6. Safin, the volatile Russian with a game as imposing—but also as erratic—as anyone on tour, kept his on-court outbursts to a minimum in advancing to the second round.Dancevic, 22, came out of nowhere earlier this summer to reach the final at Indianapolis after shocking Andy Roddick in the semis. Previously, the Canadian had never won back-to-back matches at the pro level. In the Master’s series event in Montreal, Dancevic’s home, he reached the final before falling in three sets to Rafael Nadal. With that run, Dancevic reached a career-high No. 67 in the rankings. The first set proceeded on serve until Safin, the No. 25 seed, earned break points late at 5-5. Dancevic, though, responded each time with service winners to get out of the hole. The Russian finally broke with a deep return that Dancevic couldn’t control, and Safin confidently closed out the set with a pair of aces.Dancevic is a graceful, even occasionally artistic player fond of a sliced one-handed backhand and carved angles, but he possesses few big weapons. His gently stroked shots sounded soft as they left his racquet, in contrast to the constant thud coming from the 6-foot-5 Safin’s stick.In the second set, Safin committed a string of silly, if not totally unexpected, errors, including two double faults, to fall behind 4-2. With Dancevic serving for the set at 5-3, Safin suddenly cobbled together an aggressive return game to break back and force a tiebreak. The big Russian began to lean into, and on, his serve even more to win big points, and he eeked out the tiebreak, 7-5. In the third set, the predictable ups and downs of a Safin match were realized. Up an early break, Safin appeared to be headed toward the locker room. But nothing is ever easy with Marat, and he relaxed and let Dancevic back into the set—and very nearly the match. Safin handed his opponent two breaks of serve and was staring down a fourth set. Keeping things interesting, Safin saved two set points, one with a blistering forehand return down the line, and he broke right back at 5-6, forcing another tiebreak. Safin closed out the match with an ace, his 19th of the match. Safin's 2007 has been exceedingly patchy, even by the Russian’s frustrating standards. He has reached just one semifinal, in Las Vegas, and was bounced in the first rounds at both the Australian and French Opens and the third round at Wimbledon. While still capable of massive, penetrating groundstrokes, Safin of late has frequently ended points with wild misfires, unbefitting a player of his outside talent. Though not a top seed, Marat has a pretty favorable draw at this, his eighth US Open, and the possibility of his meeting up with Rafael Nadal in the semifinals is tantalizing. But as tennis fans long ago learned, few things are certain when it comes to Safin.

Draw

2007-08-22T21:38:00.000+01:00

Main Draw Men Singles

Roger Federer SUI (1) vs.QUALIFIER
QUALIFIER vs.QUALIFIER
QUALIFIER vs.QUALIFIER
John Isner USA vs.Jarkko Nieminen FIN (26)

Juan Carlos Ferrero ESP (21) vs. Feliciano Lopez ESP
Robert Kendrick USA vs.Igor Andreev RUS
Donald Young USA vs.Chris Guccione AUS
Sergio Roitman ARG vs.Richard Gasquet FRA (13)

Tomas Berdych CZE (9) vs.Marc Gicquel FRA
Simone Bolelli ITA vs.Julien Benneteau FRA
Gilles Simon FRA vs.QUALIFIER
Fernando Verdasco ESP vs.Paul-Henri Mathieu FRA (22)

Ivo Karlovic CRO (32) vs.Arnaud Clement FRA
Thomas Johansson SWE vs.Nicolas Massu CHI
Jose Acasuso ARG vs.Martin Vassallo Arguello ARG
Justin Gimelstob USA vs.Andy Roddick USA (5)

Nikolay Davydenko RUS (4) vs.Jesse Levine USA
Nicolas Kiefer GER vs.Vincent Spadea USA
Peter Luczak AUS vs.Luis Horna PER
Alex Kuznetsov USA vs.Nicolas Almagro ESP (28)

Andy Murray GBR (19) vs.QUALIFIER
Juan-Pablo Guzman ARG vs.Jonas Bjorkman SWE
Dominik Hrbaty SVK vs.Hyung-Taik Lee KOR
Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo ESP vs.Guillermo Canas ARG (14)

Tommy Haas GER (10) vs.QUALIFIER
Benjamin Becker GER vs.QUALIFIER
Paul Goldstein USA vs.Sebastien Grosjean FRA
Max Mirnyi BLRvs.Marcos Baghdatis CYP (18)

Filippo Volandri ITA (29) vs.Michael Llodra FRA
Stefan Koubek AUT vs.Sam Querrey USA
Fabrice Santoro FRA vs.Albert Montanes ESP
Michael Russell USA vs.James Blake USA (6)

Tommy Robredo ESP (8) vs.QUALIFIER
Mardy Fish USA vs.QUALIFIER
QUALIFIER vs.Michael Berrer GER
Ernests Gulbis LAT vs.Potito Starace ITA (30)

Carlos Moya ESP (17) vs.QUALIFIER
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez ESP vs.Igor Kunitsyn RUS
Mariano Zabaleta ARG vs.Philipp Kohlschreiber GER
Nicolas Devilder FRA vs.Mikhail Youzhny RUS (11)

Lleyton Hewitt AUS (16) vs.Amer Delic USA
Andreas Seppi ITA vs.Agustin Calleri ARG
QUALIFIER vs.Nicolas Lapentti ECU
Edouard Roger-Vasselin FRA vs.Juan Monaco ARG (23)

Jurgen Melzer AUT (31) vs.Diego Hartfield ARG
Juan Martin Del Potro ARG vs.Nicolas Mahut FRA
Carlos Berlocq ARG vs.Radek Stepanek CZE
Mario Ancic CRO vs.Novak Djokovic SRB (3)

Fernando Gonzalez CHI (7) vs.Teimuraz Gabashvili RUS
Robby Ginepri USA vs.Olivier Rochus BEL
Stanislas Wawrinka SUI vs.Evgeny Korolev RUS
QUALIFIER vs.Marat Safin RUS (25)

Juan Ignacio Chela ARG (20) vs.Michael McClune USA
Danai Udomchoke THA vs.Wayne Odesnik USA
QUALIFIER vs.Gael Monfils FRA
Kristof Vliegen BEL vs.Ivan Ljubicic CRO (12)

David Ferrer ESP (15) vs.Florian Mayer GER
Florent Serra FRA vs.Werner Eschauer AUT
Xavier Malisse BEL vs.Kristian Pless DEN
Ivan Navarro Pastor ESP vs.David Nalbandian ARG (24)

Dmitry Tursunov RUS (27) vs.Tim Henman GBR
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga FRA vs.Oscar Hernandez ESP
Janko Tipsarevic SRB vs.Ryan Sweeting USAAlun
Jones AUS vs.Rafael Nadal ESP (2)

News and photo's

2007-08-22T10:11:00.000+01:00

From the official website: Marat is travelling to New York today,after a long, hard week of practice in Miami.Marat is delighted with his co-operation with his new coach, Hernan Gumy,and both parties have decided to continue their working relations until the end of this year.Hopefully,a long term agreement will result in great results!!!

And for some great photo's, slideshows and video's of Cincinnati, have a look here and enjoy!
http://safin-faniac.blogspot.com/

US Open 2007

2007-08-20T08:19:00.000+01:00

US Open
Place: Flushing Meadows, NY
Date: Aug. 27-Sept. 9, 2007
Draw Size: 128
Surface: Hard
Prize Money: US$7,950,000
Tournament Director: Arlen Kantarian
Ticket Hotline: 1-914-696-7200
Website: www.usopen.org

Round/Points/Money
W 1000 $1,200,000
F 700 $600,000
SF 450 $280,000
QF 250 $140,000
R16 150 $72,000
R32 75 $42,000
R64 35 $26,500

R128 5 $16,500

History of the US Open

The US Open that more than 650,000 fans will enjoy this year at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center bears, in many ways, little resemblance to the tournament started 126 years ago. It has evolved from an exclusive men's singles and doubles tournament in 1881 to a two-week sports and entertainment extravaganza, changing its name from the U.S Championships to the US Open and its location from Rhode Island to Pennsylvania to its current home in Flushing, N.Y. The five major championships that constitute the US Openâ€”men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles and mixed doubles-grew from a single men's tournament held as an entertainment diversion for high society at the turn of the 20th century. The first U.S. National Singles Championship for men was held at the Newport Casino in Newport, R.I., in August 1881, the beginning of a 34-year run for Newport as the center of tennis in the United States. Only clubs that were members of the United States National Lawn Tennis Association were permitted to enter the initial tournament. Men's doubles was played in conjunction with men's singles at the Newport Casino for the event's first seven years, 1881- 1886, before the U.S. Championships grew and spread out to other locales. In 1887, six years after the men's nationals were instituted as an annual event, the first official U.S. Women's National Singles Championship was held at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, joined by women's doubles in 1889. The U.S. Mixed Doubles Championship officially began in 1892 and was played in conjunction with the women's singles and women's doubles until 1921, when it was combined with the men's doubles program of the U.S. National Championships. The five major events of the U.S. National Championships/US Open have been contested at nine different locations since the event's inception in Newport. All five finally came together when the women's doubles tournament moved to the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, N.Y., at the advent of the Open Era in 1968, and all five moved to the US Open's current location, the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y., in 1978. Overall, the West Side Tennis Club has hosted the most championships, 210, with the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center standing at 145 through 2006. Men's doubles has been played at the greatest number of sites (eight), while women's singles has been the least traveled, having only been hosted by the Philadelphia Cricket Club, the West Side Tennis Club and the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. A total of $100,000 was offered by the USTA to the field of 96 men and 63 women who entered the men's and women's singles and doubles at the 1968 US Open. Today, the US Open offers more than $19.6 million to a field of more than 600 men and women, including qualifying. In 2004, the US Open added the US Open Series Bonus Challenge, potentially pushing the 2007 US Open prize money to $22.2 million.

Marat's best results were back when he, of course, won the tournament in 2000 and in 2001 he reached the semi's.

Draw will be announced on Wednesday, August 22.

DRAW: http://www.usopen.org/en_US/scores/draws/ms/index.html?promo=homepage

OOP: http://www.usopen.org/en_US/scores/schedule/index.html

SCORE: http://www.usopen.org/en_US/scores/index.html

TV-SCHEDULE: http://www.usopen.org/en_US/about/tv_us.html

AUDIO & VIDEO: http://www.usopen.org/en_US/news/media/index.html

Cincinnati Tennis Tournament 1st Round

2007-08-12T21:52:00.000+01:00

Marat lost to Nicolas Kiefer on Monday, with 36 67(1). It was a terrible match and for those who saw it: you know what I mean! I think he just had a bad day. Nothing more nothing less.

Pictures of the match:

Interview:

CINCINNATI, OHIO

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Last week you were quite encouraged by some things and things seemed to be going right. What happened?

MARAT SAFIN: Didn't feel right on the court. Nothing really happened. I don't know. Then that's it.

Q. And was it difficult to adjust to the speed of the court or anything like that?

MARAT SAFIN: The ball is going faster than Montreal and I couldn't find myself on the court and the balls are flying so couldn't hit winner because I was not secure with my shots. That's what happens.

Q. Do these kind of defeats make any difference to you? With a match like this, can you just write it off as a bad day?

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah. It's the best thing to do. Wasn't really even a match. Nothing to compare with. The match is not all I think about because it was everything was going wrong at the beginning of the first set. He made me a really fast break and started to get more complicated and then just forget about this one.

Q. When you were younger were you ever a ball boy?

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah.

Q. At the Kremlin Cup?

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah.

Q. What are your memories of that?

MARAT SAFIN: Well, the first you watch the professional tennis it's a little bit different feeling to play yourself. I play at the level of, I don't know, being one of the best in Russia. To be able to see how far the ball is going, basically where you're aiming, who you want to become. It's where you want to be. It was a big opportunity to see from close how they play tennis, because from the stands it's a little bit different than from the court.

Q. Did you do it one year or more?

MARAT SAFIN: Twice, I think.

Q. Do you remember the years by any chance?

MARAT SAFIN: '90, '92 maybe.

Q. Do you have any memorable matches, any memorable experiences, players that you looked up to?

MARAT SAFIN: Not really, because it was I just remember the names. It was Bjorkman. It was same people that I started with basically. It's pretty funny.

Q. Have you talked to Jonas about that?

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah.

Q. What does he think?

MARAT SAFIN: Nothing much. What he going to say? Well done.

Q. Is it more disappointing or frustrating for you when you have a day like this when you can't seem to find your game?

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, but so many days in my life, so not like I'm going to kill myself and feel bad for next month and a half. It happened, it happened. It's not like it's last day of my life. It's not the match that I will remember for the rest much my life, so who cares. Play like terribly and so that's it. Life moves on.

Q. You were playing better the second set. Did you feel like maybe you had a chance to get back in it?

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, kind of. Small chance. Didn't take it. Timing was all off, and it's disappointing but it's okay. Just one match, tennis match.

Q. Where do go from here?

MARAT SAFIN: Miami. So it's not a bad idea, huh, to lose the first round and go to Miami?

Q. Earlier in the summer you were talking about making a conscious effort to really go for it up to the US Open. How do you feel your game is overall?

MARAT SAFIN: Well, it's just -- I start to explain to you guys what happened. It's just a very long story. Basically what happened is the knee injury basically destroyed my game, so I have to break everything what I been doing for last one year and a half since I came back from the injury and try to rebuild my game, what I used to play before the injury. Because it kind of basically took me away for such a long time, I had to start to make many different movements on the court to protect my left knee. And then use the left knee in the backhand, forehand, all the movements. I start to protect it, and basically end up with a game I never played before. So now I have to change everything back to older memories. It's quite a few months to be able to find your game back, and that's why I have a new coach. He realized and looked at me and said, Listen, this is not the way you used to play. I guess it's because of that, that, and that. It will take a couple months to get used to it and then you will see the difference. That's what we're doing. Don't really care about the results right now. Who cares? Doesn't matter if you are 24 or 35, it's the same thing. Just I'm not aiming to be there. I'm aiming to be in the top 20. If it's not this year it's going to happen next year. If not next year, there's many years to come. You have to enjoy on the court and not to run around and try to save and scramble and go all over the court. It's not really tennis that I would like to play.

Q. Are you feeling 100% now in terms of the injury?

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah. But somebody had to go from outside what happened to my game, because I really felt like I'm losing it and eventually I lost my game. I couldn't hit winners and he said I was not moving on the court the right way, and that's why all the shots disappear. One thing went to another thing and then of course it made a big problem, and that's why I have to break everything down and start building all over again the tennis. So I guess for next year I'll be okay.

Q. Earlier in your career do you think you would have been more upset by a loss like this? Because people know you a very emotional, passionate player. Like you said, this is not life or death, but do you think when you were younger you would have taken it harder than now?

MARAT SAFIN: Why you want to know that for?

Q. I just meant is it different for you now because you're an older player?

MARAT SAFIN: Of course. I have the experience. If I would find myself in the same situation when I'm twenty years old and I don't know how to -- I couldn't win the match, for example, for six months and my position is 18 or 25 in the world and defending all my points going into the fall, of course I would be much more disappointed than right now. But right now I have pretty good years of my career and a lot of experience, so I just have a bad moments and good moments still to come I know. It's just a tennis match. You know, I've been there for two hours of my life today, so I have another basically six hours to go to sleep. Could you imagine if I start to think about the bad hours on the court and ruin my day?

Q. I have a strange question: Have you started to wear shorts with no pockets?

MARAT SAFIN: No, no, no, it's just the pockets are too small.

Q. So that's why you take the ball from --

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, yeah.

Q. Doesn't that break your rhythm?

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, it's not comfortable, really. Their falling down. So I just have to do it.

Q. Do you feel your knee any time after the match?

MARAT SAFIN: Well, after the long match and you've been running a lot so of course I have -- it's disturbing a little bit because it's sore, which is normal. It's a little tendonitis, so I do the procedure: Put some ice and stretch the leg and typical thing I'm doing for one year and a half, so I'm used to it. But it's much less than it used to be before when I came back from the injury, so now at least everything is all right. I can run and feel 100% on the court, which is not bad.

Q. Do you recuperate over the night?

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, yeah. It's okay.

Q. Am I right in saying that the US Open is one of your favorite tournaments, if not your favorite?

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah. I have also my issues with this tournament.

Q. But what are your realistic ambitions this year if you're thinking about next year being fully fit?

MARAT SAFIN: Just go there also. Not put too much pressure on yourself and not to worry the ranking and let's see what's going to happen the first round and then who's going to be the second round. It's really not going to happen, anything great, this year. I don't have any expectations. It's the best thing to do actually, and I go match by match. Then if everything goes well, I start to get the confidence and then maybe I get to the second week I can be dangerous. But it's still a long way and a long process and really far away from my confidence and my best game, so let's keep it this way.

Q. Are you still enjoying playing?

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah. Of course otherwise I would not be here. I would be somewhere in the south of France on the beach, or an yacht.

Q. When you were a ball boy did you work for Rosset?

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah.

Q. Did you joke about that when he was coaching you?

MARAT SAFIN: No. Nobody really like -- this conversation doesn't go too far actually.

Q. No?

MARAT SAFIN: No, not really. Not really. Nobody -- I guess it's maybe uncomfortable situation for them and for me, but it doesn't go bar far. Because actually they never remember you as a ball boy.

End of FastScripts

Round 2

2007-08-07T23:23:00.000+01:00

Marat lost to Rafael Nadal with 67(4) 06... Too bad cause he had 2 setpoints in the first set! Well still we can be proud.. a good first set, where he probably gave it all!

Interview after walkover (from http://www.asapsports.com/show_interview.php?id=44723 )

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Marat.
Q. Have you had many walkovers in your career? Can you think of any? MARAT SAFIN: I wish it would happen a little more often.
Q. Have you had any? MARAT SAFIN: No, this is probably the second one. I think it was somewhere else something happened, but I don't remember.
Q. Is it better or worse that you had the walkover before you have to play Rafael? MARAT SAFIN: No, much better. Soderling, he's a tough player, plays well. Better than to run around the court two, three hours try to beat him, then come up tomorrow with a good game. So I prefer this way.
Q. You've been playing quite a lot this summer, haven't you? MARAT SAFIN: Also. So an extra day off, I think it's a good thing.
Q. How about playing Rafa? Never played him before. MARAT SAFIN: No, never. I'm looking forward. We'll see how it's going to happen, what's going to happen. I don't have many expectations. I'm just play my match. He's the favorite. He's playing well. Let's just keep it this way.
Q. A guy like that, that you've seen play all these years, you never played him, do you have a natural curiosity, some ideas how you would play against him? MARAT SAFIN: Not really. I don't really care about this. Whenever the opportunity comes comes. So finally it came. But I was not really looking for it and try to out of curiosity play against him, not really. He's a very good player. I don't think you are really looking for that experience.
Q. You're not looking for that experience? MARAT SAFIN: No (smiling). Q. Like when guys play against you? MARAT SAFIN: When the guys played against me before, yes, was different story. Not now (smiling).
Q. Can you go in as an underdog with nothing to lose? MARAT SAFIN: What I have to lose? He's the one second seeded. He's the one who is fighting for No. 1 this year. I'm not the one. He's favorite in this tournament. So for me it's another opportunity, another chance. Anything can happen, of course. I'm not going there and tank the match. I'm going to try to win it, of course. But I'm definitely not expecting anything great out of it. I don't want to have extra pressure on myself that I should make at least a good match. So I don't really care. If it's 6-2, 6-2 or 7-6, 7-6, doesn't make any difference for me.
Q. If you win, that would boost your confidence. MARAT SAFIN: "If, if." If many things would be different way, many changes would be in this world. So let's keep it this way.
Q. How do you feel about your game right now? MARAT SAFIN: Well, been a long summer. I had my matches, had my bad matches, everything happened. Actually, everything happened but nothing happened. Two quarterfinals. I didn't really play my best game. Didn't really play for -- I didn't impress myself with my game. So was just fighting around and trying to win in tough matches, finishing 1:00 in the morning in Washington, playing next day against Monfils, playing bad again. So nothing really extraordinary.
Q. What to you make of the gambling investigation going on? MARAT SAFIN: Not for me, man. Not for me. Q. Not for you? MARAT SAFIN: I don't care. They can do whatever they want. I don't want to be involved in any of it. I don't want to make any comments. I don't care.
Q. Do you feel like the ATP is doing what it needs to do? MARAT SAFIN: I don't care, man. ATP can do whatever they want. I'm out of it.
Q. You don't care that it possibly could be viewed as hurting the integrity of the sport? MARAT SAFIN: I don't care. It's not my problem, that's for sure. I'm here more for myself than for the ATP. The ATP is full of people who gets paid a lot of money, big bucks, and they're the ones who have to think, not me. I'm here to play my tennis, win some matches, and whatever happens happens. I'm not going to make any comments. They have enough smart people to investigate and look for it, to the right thing. I'm not the one to ask.
Q. Does it surprise you to hear that kind of thing might happen in tennis? MARAT SAFIN: Again, I don't care.
Q. A few years ago you were giving your sister a hard time. MARAT SAFIN: I don't remember that. Q. In Australia. MARAT SAFIN: Okay, so (smiling)?
Q. Now is she giving you a hard time? MARAT SAFIN: She can't.
Q. Why not? MARAT SAFIN: Because a lot of things depends on me when you're out of tennis life, so she better be good for me.
Q. You said this has been an unremarkable season for you. How do you feel about that? Do you feel frustrated? Is it just kind of a depressing thing? MARAT SAFIN: Well, first of all, why I have to be frustrated? In the worst scenario, the worst scenario, which would be the normal scenario of my life, I would be a coach in some club in Russia, in Moscow, that nobody would even think about me. I would have probably a few kids and wife, drive every morning at 9:00 in the morning to give lessons. And look at me now. Not bad for 10 years of career. Instead of that, I'm alone. I'm playing my best tennis. I'm doing the things that I love to do. I have no family. I'm enjoying it. So you know, I was lucky to catch the train. I was lucky to take the opportunity the people they gave me. Why I have to be frustrated? I have everything what I need. I have a good life. I'm flying business, first class. I have my friends coming to watch me. When I go to Moscow, I'm staying at a nice place, nice area, good neighborhood, nice cars. So everything is great. So why I have to be frustrated?
Q. You've expressed frustration in the past when you haven't played as well as you want to. MARAT SAFIN: Is different thing. Of course, you want to do a little better than you are doing. Of course, instead of being 25, you want to be maybe top 10, for example. But after all, if you thinking the big picture, it doesn't really matter. If you enjoy what you're doing, the good times this will come. If you do the proper job, of course with the years it's a little bit more difficult to push yourself to do that. If you want to play tennis, and I want to play tennis, I really want to try, I think everything can come back and everything can be improved. Especially that I didn't make any great results, I'm still 20 in the world. Is not really bad. It's one small step by winning a couple of difficult matches, make a quarterfinal here, a semifinal in a big tournament, you are already not 20, you are already almost top 10. Then the people, they say, Oh, he's back. But what made the difference? Just one, two points in a tough match, that's it. It's two matches, that's it. But frustrating? Never.
Q. You're kind of lucky to have caught the train without the wife and kids on it. MARAT SAFIN: That's for sure not for me yet. I prefer to play tennis and be alone than to be working in a tennis club from 9:00 to 9:00 and having two kids to feed and a wife that is never happy. Sounds familiar or not?
Q. You're assuming a lot. MARAT SAFIN: Sounds familiar for some of us, huh? End of FastScripts

Good luck tomorrow Marat and let the beast come out!
VAMOS and DAVAI!

Rogers Masters, Montreal

2007-08-05T10:12:00.000+01:00

The Tournament

Place: Montreal, Canada
Date: August 6-12, 2007
Draw Size: 56
Surface: Hard
Prize Money: $2,450,000
Tournament Director: Grant Connell
Ticket Hotline:1-800/398-8761
Website: http://www.rogerscupmen.com/

Since 1881, a bevy of tennis stars have blessed Canadians with their impressive talent. The world famous Canadian Open, the oldest ongoing tournament after Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, continues to present a first grade organization. From Toronto to Montreal every other year, the Rogers Cup is an important leg of the ATP Masters Series. With $2.45 million dollars U.S. prize money, this event attracts the world's best tennis players.
The impressive list of past champions on the Canadian stop of the professional tennis circuit bear such legendary names as John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Ivan Lendl, Andre Agassi and Roger Federer. At the inauguration of Toronto's Rexall Centre in 2004, 41 of the 50 best men's players in the world played for a record Toronto crowd of 165,508 spectators. In 2006, the Rogers Cup enjoyed the best attendance in its history, attracting 173, 484 spectators to Montreal’s Uniprix Stadium. Not only is that number a Canadian record, but it is also a world record for a week-long tennis tournament.

Past Champions - Singles (Marat has won this tournament once in 2000)

Past Champions - Doubles

Prizemoney (round, rankingpoints, money)
W 500 $400,000
F 350 $200,000
SF 225 $100,000
QF 125 $49,000
R16 75 $25,000
R32 35 $14,000
R64 5 $7,000

Draw: http://www.atptennis.com/en/common/TrackIt.asp?file=http://www.atptennis.com/1/posting/2007/421/mds.pdf

OOP: http://www.atptennis.com/en/common/TrackIt.asp?file=http://www.atptennis.com/1/posting/2007/421/op.pdf

Quarterfinal

2007-08-03T09:12:00.000+01:00

Yaay! Marat reached the quarters:)!
He'll now face Gael Monfils (FRA) who is currently ranked 54. They have only met once, which was last year in Cincinnati (hard court) and Monfils won that one with 64 75.
To compare their YTD-Stats: http://www.atptennis.com/3/en/players/headtohead/popYTDMatchStats.asp?plyr1=S741&plyr2=MC65

Marat lost to Gael Monfils in a two-setter with 36 57.

Go Marat:)

News Updates

2007-08-03T08:45:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone:)!

I'm back from my holidays! I hope you could do without me for a while hehe! At least I have some news updates, incase you missed them!

Marat has changed coach. Volkov and Marat descided that Volkov just didn't fit in Marat's schedule.. Volkov has little time! (check this out, for Marat's words about it: http://www.maratsafin.com/content.php?did=10&aid=c4265c49a948da25128744ffcedff8d4)

Marat reached the quarters in LA, but lost there to Hyung-Taik Lee (KOR).

And currently, Marat is playing in Washington DC and also reached here the quarters! He won yesterday's match against Robin Haase (NED) with 75 67(2) 75. He will now face Gael Monfils. For pics of Rd. 3, check below!

Pics of Safin vs. Haase

US Open Series 2007

2007-07-06T10:43:00.000+01:00

I will be away for 4 weeks --> I can't update the blog than, but while I'm away the following tournaments will be played:

First tournament: Country Wide Classic LA 15-22 July

Official website: http://www.countrywideclassic.com/
Here will the draw be placed: http://www.countrywideclassic.com/singles.htm
Order of play will be announced here:
http://www.countrywideclassic.com/dailyorderofplay.htm
Match schedule: http://www.countrywideclassic.com/matchschedule.htm
TV-Schedule: http://www.countrywideclassic.com/tv.htm
Live scores: http://www.countrywideclassic.com/livescoring.htm

Marat's best result was round 16. He has been here already for 3 times.

Second tournament: Legg Mason Tennis Classic Washington 28 July - 05 August

Official website: http://www.leggmasontennisclassic.com/
Here will the draw be placed: http://www.leggmasontennisclassic.com/include/pdf/mds.pdf
Order of play will be announced here: OS
Match schedule: OS
TV-Schedule: OS
Live scores: Check http://www.atptennis.com/ by than or the OS.

Marat's best result was the semi-final last year. He has been here already for 2 times.

News update

2007-07-05T10:24:00.000+01:00

From the official website:

Marat is presently in Moscow. He plans to arrive in Los Angeles next Friday 13th July. Miguel Maseo his fitness trainer will be with him in Los Angeles.After the Countrywide Classic Marat will stay on in Los Angeles to practice before heading to Washington for his next tournament, the Legg Mason Tennis Classic.

Round 3 Wimbledon 2007

2007-06-30T09:58:00.000+01:00

Pictures from yesterday's match.. 16 46 67(4) Safin - Federer.

Marat played against Roger Federer in the 3rd round of Wimbledon. Unfortunatly Marat lost, with 16 46 67(4). It's now 2-8 head-to-head for Federer.

Interview Marat Safin after the match:

Q. You talked yesterday about playing this match with nothing to lose, and yet it looked like until the third set, and when you really let the ball fly, you just played freely. It didn't look like you were playing with nothing to lose until then.
MARAT SAFIN: No, well, the problem was that I never played it's my first time I've played on Centre Court since many years, so I kind of it was a strange feeling for me, so it took me about two sets to get used to it.
The ball is a little bit sliding a little bit more than other courts, and of course the distance between the court is much bigger. So this was my problem. I couldn't get used to it, and the wind was into the wind of course I'm not taking any credit away from Roger, but still, it was a difficult sensation to get used to because it was a lot of wind, and the circumstances was tough for me to be in my game.
Q. On that crazy point at the end of the second set where the ball seemed to die in front of you as you tried to hit an inside out forehand, what happened there?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, tough conditions. It was a lucky shot, and but he made it. It also counts.
Q. Did you misjudge where it was going to bounce?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, it's kind of it was going away, then it was staying, so it was kind of difficult because it was supposed to fly out, and then it just bounced it didn't really bounce at all. So it's tough for me.
Q. In the tiebreak, you played a great tiebreak, almost no balls were coming back, and then that very casual volley at a key point. Did you play that one just too casually?
MARAT SAFIN: No, it just was a lot of spin and then just I misjudged the power that was going, actually. I thought it was going a little bit faster than was actually going, the ball, so just all of a sudden it catch me by surprise.
Q. If you had played the first set the way you played the third one
MARAT SAFIN: It would have been a different story.
Q. could it have been a different set, match?
MARAT SAFIN: Big time, because he was a little bit uptight, also, at the beginning of the first set. And then when he broke me he started to have more confidence and it was easy for him. But the first set if it were 7 6, it would be closer or a different match for sure.
Q. Do you think anyone can beat him this year?
MARAT SAFIN: I don't see anybody who can hurt him because everybody knows how to play against him but they don't have enough weapons to beat him, unfortunately.
Q. Could you tell that he was uptight with you at the beginning?
MARAT SAFIN: I could feel at first, the first game he didn't serve that well, missed a couple of easy shots, so he was also a little bit nervous because he didn't know with what I'm going to come up. Then when he broke me. It was a completely different game.
Q. How inspired were you to play against Roger? I mean, you've had some fantastic matches in the past. Is it more fun to play a match like that today?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, it's a little bit well, for me it's anyway great because just to see it's another opportunity for me to see that actually I can still play at some great level, and for me it's a challenge and for me it's another push to bring back my game.
Even lose or win this match, it's just a different approach, and I can see that I still have a lot of tennis, and I need to I know what I have to do a little bit to improve my game. So kind of it was a help actually. Even though this court was pretty easy, it's a huge help for me.
Q. Where are you in terms of your relationship with grass?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, I think it's okay. My game is pretty suitable for the grass, but you need to have enough confidence and enough matches to play against players like him. Not the first and second round where he's good and you're not really used to the grass and then maybe closer to quarterfinals, semifinals, it's a different game.
Q. Let me move to your best surface, hard court. How many US Open Series tournaments do you plan on playing?
MARAT SAFIN: All of them. Well, which ones?
Q. There are six tournaments in the US Open Series leading up to the US Open.
MARAT SAFIN: Well, this year is tough. I don't even know how it works, the points, and then it's like if you make something, you win, you have double prize money, so it's really I cannot get it. It's the second, third year that I'm making it and it's still too complicated to understand.
Q. You'll still be in Cincinnati, Canada. Anywhere else?
MARAT SAFIN: LA.
Q. Do you wish that you'd come to this understanding of grass earlier in your career?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, I can't complain about my career anyhow, because let's put it this way: If you would have seen me in 1995, 1996, you would really understand what actually what became from me, because it's really for you guys who started to meet me in 1998 where I started to make my first money and I started to win some matches.
If you would have seen me in 1996, then you would have really surprised even that I'm still playing that I'm playing tennis.
Q. But in 1992 here, Hewitt won.
MARAT SAFIN: In 2002.
Q. Yeah, sorry. That would have been a year maybe you would have had a good chance if you were happier on grass?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, I had a chance 2001 when Ivanisevic won. He won three sets pretty tough: 7 6, 7 5, 3 6 7 6, and I think it was my best year, quarterfinals, my best year. I was playing pretty well, and I think I would have Henman in the semifinals, which is a good draw.
Q. Will you ever be a top ten player again?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, why not? I still have a few years left. Why not? If I'm not, then I'm not. I'm still playing because I still believe that I can get there, anyhow, and it doesn't matter when.
Q. You still don't like Wimbledon; maybe you said it's very expensive in London.
MARAT SAFIN: Well, the most expensive city is Moscow, first of all. It's not like I
dislike because everybody tries to pick on me and tries to put the words in my mouth because I said something that I don't like London. I love London, first of all. Wimbledon is a pretty good facility. It's okay.
So then I have my few things about the food, but it doesn't really matter. I don't make a big deal out of it, what I'm saying. But of course the press wants to start the sensation, Safin said and complained, and who cares about this.
But for sure there are people that like it. That's why I'm in this situation and that's why you're asking me this question.

Round 2 Wimbledon 2007

2007-06-26T21:00:00.000+01:00

Pics from match: Safin - Qureshi.

Marat won from Qureshi with 64 62 76(4). It was a great win and finally after some time: 2 wins in a row! We should be proud of him!

Interview after match:

Q. Grass has historically not been your best surface, but you have played Roger very tough on grass, and you beat him before. Nobody quite knows which Marat Safin will be there to play Federer in the next round.
MARAT SAFIN: For me it's another opportunity to play a great match. First of all, for me it's a huge challenge. Centre Court, play against Federer. He's playing pretty well. He's playing great tennis. If I want to have a chance at least to be close to beat him, I have of course to put up my best game, go for it. Also I have nothing to lose because he's the favorite here. He's playing pretty good tennis on grass. It's his best surface, I guess. But also, like I said, I have nothing to lose. I need to play my tennis, stay focused, take my chances. For sure there are going to be. Just wait and see. Of course, why not? Like I said, it's a challenge. Why not?
Q. When you were serving at 2 3 in the third set today, up 40 15, he hit a ball that was clearly long. The baselines woman failed to call it out, and the umpire, refused your request to overrule. Do you think this Hawk Eye system is any more accurate than these lines people?
MARAT SAFIN: Linesmen are not Hawk Eye. All the human beings are making mistakes, and it's okay.
Q. Do you think Hawk Eye is accurate?
MARAT SAFIN: Hawk Eye is the best thing we can have right now.
Q. Do you think it's accurate?
MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, yeah.
Q. You complained about the prices of the food at Wimbledon. What about the standard of the food that players are served? Should they be given more international cuisine?
MARAT SAFIN: Compared to the prices, for a plate of pasta, it's costing around £10, right? For £10, which is $20, you can have a great pasta at Cipriani in New York.
Q. What is the quality like?
MARAT SAFIN: Definitely not the Cipriani of New York. Everybody knows this restaurant. I think it's one of the best restaurants in New York. Also in Moscow, one of the most expensive, and we have a better pasta for 20 bucks, that's for sure.
Q. You mentioned it's important for you to keep your focus against Federer. Is that a struggle for you in every match, keeping focus?
MARAT SAFIN: It's kind of complicated sometimes when I'm playing well because sometimes you start to have your fears because you're a little bit under pressure sometimes, you're not playing well. Also you're too tight. Of course, it's difficult to move, it's difficult to hold the concentration balance. You start to panic. When you try to loosen up, you loosen up too much. It's kind of difficult to find golden point. Unfortunately been like this for already quite long time. So hopefully look like I played pretty well these last two matches. To play against Federer, of course it will be easy to keep the focus, that's for sure.
Q. Do you bring your own sandwiches?
MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, sure. No, of course not. Of course, I have to deal with that. A lot of players, they have to deal with that. Of course, we can have better quality, that's for sure.
Q. Can you talk about your opponent today? How do you think he played?
MARAT SAFIN: I never saw the guy. I never saw him play. A lot of people, they said that he's pretty tough, serves well, good volleys, good hands, very dangerous player. I saw they were right. All of them were right. He beat Gasquet in Halle. He's a great player. He knows how to play.
Q. You mentioned after your first match you weren't very confident. What degree of confidence do you need going into a match against Federer?
MARAT SAFIN: All of it. You need have all of it if you want to compete on the same level as him. You have to bring up your best game. But, of course, the first match is always tough because you kind of nervous, it's a grass court, it's windy, then it's raining, it's stopping, it's raining, it's stopping. All these factors, of course it's pretty tough for the first match to play great tennis and be as confident as you can be. But looks today like I played well, moved quite well. Looking forward for the match.
Q. Where is your level of confidence now?
MARAT SAFIN: There. We'll see tomorrow (smiling).
Q. What do you like most about Wimbledon and what do you dislike most about Wimbledon, apart from the prices?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, of course, what I like is the tradition. What I like is they improved a lot of site. Great facilities for the players to be inside. I mean, like the garden upstairs. The restaurant area, plenty of space. Pretty comfortable. You can go to Aorangi through the tunnel. You don't have to go with all the people. Great locker rooms. Great showers. No, showers is really important. If you see them, you understand what I'm talking about.
Q. And dislike?
MARAT SAFIN: And dislike? Like I said, a little bit the quality of the food and, of course, the prices. I mean, like it's not enough an extra £5 doesn't hurt anybody. To eat strawberries and have a cup of coffee at least, and, of course, the same day is the same thing: chicken, pasta. They could have done better for the prices.
Q. You faced a lot of breakpoints in these first two matches, but you've also defended almost every one of them. Are you concerned you're facing so many breakpoints or how feeling good you defended so many of them?
MARAT SAFIN: Both ways. Well, Federer also, he is even the best player in the world, he has also has these Love 30 things, 15 40, also defends them pretty well. It's not to be scared of defending them. It's just to face them and win them because, anyway, anybody can have chance against you and anybody can get there. With two lucky shots, with one like two lucky shots, that's it, you're down 15 40 easy in a matter of seconds (snapping fingers). All of a sudden, you find yourself in not a really pleasant position. You need to face, you need to face in the right way, know what you're doing, how you're going to play. To make a long story short, just be careful. It's just a breakpoint. You didn't lose the game yet.

Video-interview: http://wimbledon.mediazone.com/other/interviews.html --> scroll down a bit and search under Thursday 28th of June and click on: "Safin awaits Federer".

Pictures of Round 1 Wimbledon 2007 & Interview

2007-06-26T20:57:00.000+01:00

M. Safin - 26 JuneTuesday, 26 June, 2007

Marat Safin (RUS)[26] beat Rik De voest (RSA) 7-6(7-5), 6-4, 7-5

Q. How do you think you played today?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, for the conditions, first match at Wimbledon is pretty tough to play well, so kind of nervous at the beginning, and a difficult match with the guy I played. It was okay the first match, I think.
Q. You're up against Qureshi next from Pakistan. Do you know much about this guy?
MARAT SAFIN: Neither. I don't even know how he looks unfortunately. I guess he's playing pretty good tennis if he passed the quallie, he qualified, he won the three set match today. So I guess tough opponent second round. We'll see how it's going to be.
Q. Are you going to have your spies out doing some research on this guy?
MARAT SAFIN: Not really, not really (smiling). We'll see tomorrow.
Q. Is there anything that you feel you need to practice on after today's game? Is there anything you thought was missing from the way you played?
MARAT SAFIN: Not really. I played another match, and just a little bit of confidence. Everything is up to the confidence. Even if you're playing bad, you win a couple of matches, then you might have a surprise and start to play well and you start to make some results. I'll play the next match, and I face Federer in the third round. That's my goal, and then see how it's going to go. First of all, let's play tomorrow, see how it's hopefully everything will end up in a nice way, and then it's going to be the next match. Not really looking too far.
Q. Do you have the confidence at the moment?
MARAT SAFIN: No, I don't.
Q. You have no confidence at the moment?
MARAT SAFIN: I have no confidence at the moment.
Q. How come? What's wrong with your confidence?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, because I'm not winning a lot of matches lately, because I've been struggling for the past couple of months, more than a couple of months. So how are you going to build up the confidence? The confidence comes with winning matches and playing a lot of semifinals, finals. The last time I played the semifinal was in March, so that's where my confidence has left me.
Q. How did you feel when your confidence was at your lowest?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, just try to make small goals and try to play try to pick up any moments, any matches, and then whenever I have a big time breakthrough, then that's what counts. But you need to pick up all the small matches and play set by set, match by match and game by game.
Q. You said you've got Federer in the third round if you get past Qureshi. You've beaten him before at the Australian Open.
MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, I need to play my next match against Qureshi so let's look at this one first. My position shouldn't be looking any farther than my second round match.
Q. Do you think people worry too much about Federer, get too nervous when they play him, give him too much respect?
MARAT SAFIN: I don't really think about Federer. Any other players don't really, really care, and why should I care about them?

Pictures of the match:

Wimbledon ROUND 1

2007-06-23T13:29:00.000+01:00

Yes girls (and boys..), the mother of all tournaments is going to start this Monday! Marat is seeded 26th and will play Rik De Voest (South-Africa, a qualifier) in the first round. Marat will most likely play this match on Monday, because he's in the same part of the draw as the former Wimbledon Champion, Federer.

Marat has never met De Voest on a tournament before. Rik De Voest is ranked 126 in the world an his highest ranking was 101 in August, 2006. Of course Marat should be able to beat this guy, but no one knows it with Marat!

Marat won with 75(5) 64 75!!! Yeah! Go Marat:)!!!

--> check out World Time Clock for times (or http://www.timeanddate.com/ )!

For the draw: http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/scores/draws/ms/index.html

Then another tiny little thing.. The Fed Express (Federer) will be waiting for Marat in round 3! But again, you never know with Marat! He could even beat this guy but could also lose in the first or second round.. But all hopes are on Marat, let's pray!

Preview:

No stopping Fed Express
June 23, 2007 - 4:03PM

Former US Open and Australian Open winner Marat Safin will be waiting to ambush him in the third round but Roger Federer is still regarded by his peers as a runaway favourite to claim a fifth straight Wimbledon title on July 8.
Swedish veteran Jonas Bjorkman, who was swept aside by Federer in last year's semi-final, believes the Swiss maestro still has too many weapons in his grass-court armoury for anyone to knock him off his throne this year.
"Roger has been so dominant the last couple of years, at the moment I'm not sure who is the one to do it," the 35-year-old admitted.
"Obviously we all need a little help in that he does not play at his best because when he is playing his best tennis he is unbeatable on grass."
After the disappointment of his French Open defeat by Rafael Nadal, Federer opted to skip his usual warm-up tournament at Halle in Germany and there have been suggestions that he will not be going into this year's Championships in the best frame of mind.
"He's had a tougher year than normal," acknowledged Bjorkman.
"He's had a few let downs this year, obviously it gives all the players a little extra confidence that he can be beaten."
But the Swede balances that hope with an acceptance that Federer is probably a greater talent than Pete Sampras, Boris Becker or any of the other legends he has faced in his long career.
"He plays with such variety and speed," he said. "You know you have to work really hard to win the games. In my semi-final last year it was not about winning, unfortunately it was about fighting for my game because of the way he played.
"I haven't had that feeling against anyone else I have played before. You always felt you could stay with them even though they were fantastic players.
"I think he has the whole package. Pete (Sampras) was an unbelievable player and a great champion but you still felt you could hold a couple of service games because he was not returning unbelievably well all of the time.
"With Roger, it's different because he is so good all the time so if you're a little off he will put pressure on you straightaway in your service games and at the same time is very solid in his own."
Federer should have no trouble ensuring that Russia's Teimuraz Gabashvili becomes his 29th consecutive victim on the lawns of the All England club when he plays his first round match on Monday.
But he faces a potentially difficult encounter in the third round, where he could come up against the erratic but hugely-talented Safin.

Wimbledon 2007

2007-06-23T13:01:00.000+01:00

Tournament Info!
Place: London, England
Date: June 25 - July 8, 2007
Draw Size: 128
Surface: Grass
Prize Money: £5,022,560
Tournament Director: Christopher J. Gorringe
Ticket Hotline:(44) 208 946 2244
Website: http://secure-us.imrworldwide.com/cgi-bin/b?ci=us-atpclick&cg=tp&tu=http://www.wimbledon.org/
ATP London Hotel Partners:Crowne Plaza London St. James 51 Buckingham Gate

Prize Money: Round/Points/Money
W 1000 £700,000
F 700 £350,000
SF 450 £175,000
QF 250 £88,550
R16 150 £47,250
R32 75 £27,050
R64 35 £16,325
R128 5 £10,000

You can listen radio from Centre Court and Court 1 & 2 for free. Click on this link: http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/interactive/radio/index.html and find out more.
You can also watch all the matches live (for money) on the internet. Click on this link: http://wimbledon.mediazone.com/other/index.html and find out more.

TV-Schedule: http://aeltc.wimbledon.org/en_GB/about/tvschedule/index.html

Schedule of play (which will be announced on Sunday, for Monday): http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/scores/schedule/index.html
Live-scoreboard: http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/scores/index.html or http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/ibmrealtime/scoreboard.html
Point-tracker: http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/pointtracker/index.html

Roger Federer is the King of Grass for over four years now! He has won the title for 4 years in a row.. Somebody has to stop that! What about Marat Safin?!

GOOD LUCK MARATIK!

The Boodles Challenge

2007-06-16T18:21:00.000+01:00

Marat is going to play on The Boodles next. This is his last tournament before Wimbledon, so his last preperation (with real matches) on grass. Let's hope the best and give him the best support we have ever given!

Marat played Fernando Verdasco and he lost with 64 36 4-10 (big tiebreak). I heard he played good but just was unlucky in the last few shots. He will now keep on practising and may play some exhibitions.

Marat played Gael Monfils for a exhibition yesterday but lost with 46. He did lead in the beginning with 2-0 but couldn't hold his serve unfortunatly! This was a good preperation for Wimbledon, so let's hope Marat can come far over there:)!

Draw:

D. NALBANDIAN
VS
N. KIEFER

E. KOROLEV
VS
I. ANDREEV

R. SODERLING
VS
N. MASSU

F. VERDASCO
VS
M. SAFIN

Official website: http://www.theboodles.com/
For the entire playerslist: http://www.theboodles.com/content/players.php
For the Order of Play (OOP): http://www.theboodles.com/pdf/order_of_play.pdf?id=9134 (this is where it's going to be, when the OOP is announced)

I have also made a video about Marat. It's called "The World's Greatest, Marat Safin", you can click on it (if you want to watch it) in the right, scroll down a bit and there it is. The video will start on top of this page! Hope you like it, it's my first video I have ever made!

Pics of Round 3

2007-06-14T20:53:00.001+01:00

67(3) 67(4)

Pics of Round 2

2007-06-14T14:11:00.000+01:00

Pics from round 2 (yesterday's part) and pics of one of the trainingsesion!

R3 Singles and R2 Doubles

2007-06-09T13:49:00.000+01:00

For the Artios Championships (singles) is Marat seeded 8, because of injuries (withdrawals) from Ancic and Murray.
For the Arois Championships (doubles) is Marat not seeded, he got in with a wildcard (WC) and will play with Alex Bogdanovic.

Draw (singles): Marat will meet either Grosjean or Berrer. For the full draw: http://www.artoischampionships.com/5/scripts/TrackIt.asp?file=http://www.atptennis.atponline.net/posting/2007/311/MDS.pdf
Draw (doubles): Marat will play Chris Haggard/Hyung-Taik Lee in the doubles. For the full draw: http://www.artoischampionships.com/5/scripts/TrackIt.asp?file=http://www.atptennis.com/posting/2007/311/MDD.pdf

Singles: Marat lost to the big server Ivo Karlovic (22 aces, only lost 7 points on 1st service, 1st service 76%) with 67(3) 67(4).
Doubles: Marat and Alex lost to Jaroslav Levensky and David Skoch (both CZE) with 57 46.

Order of Play (OOP): http://www.artoischampionships.com/1/draws/orderofplay_thurs.asp

My thoughts on this
Although he lost today (Thursday), I think he played well to this big server (I didn't see the match though). There is not much you can do except waiting for a second serve. It's really hard to play to someone like that, especially on grass which is a faster surface as clay. To play on grass is even harder for tall people like Marat himself. The ball won't bounce that high as it does on for example clay. That's why it's much easier to play on clay for taller guys and the other way around on grass.

I personally think Marat was just unlucky today (although he did won from Grosjean). The weather was bad and Marat had to be focused on his 2nd round match first. It just was all in his mind. I mean, it's tough if you think about it. 2 and a bit matches on one single day with constantly rain delay is pretty hard for you mentally and phisically. To get ready for a match or a match after rain delay. You have to pull that buton every time. That must be hard. But let's just face it. Marat lost. Well, we know about that and there's not much we can do about it. I just really want to say here that we just have to be postive and optimistic cause without us, I don't think he can get there where he wants to get. So keep being postitive and supportive. There is nothing we can do more than support him. We're not the ones who have to do the job every match. Let's bring him our part.

Good luck my beautiful man!

Marat at the Muz TV Event

2007-06-05T20:42:00.000+01:00

The Artois Championships

2007-06-05T15:15:00.000+01:00

Place: London, England
Date: June 11-17, 2007
Draw Size: 56
Surface: Grass
Prize Money: €680,250
Tournament Director: Ian Wight
Ticket Hotline:(44) 207 894 5005
Website: www.artoischampionships.com
Hotels:www.51-buckinghamgate.com www.london.crowneplaza.com

Result/Points/Prizemoney
W 225 €80,500
F 155 €47,400
SF 100 €27,850
QF 55 €16,400
R16 20 €9,650
R32 10 €5,670
R56 0 €3,335

Entrylist:
Nadal, Rafael ESP 2
Roddick, Andy USA 3
Djokovic, Novak SRB 5
Gonzalez, Fernando CHI 6
Ljubicic, Ivan CRO 8
Murray, Andy GBR 10
Ancic, Mario CRO 14
Hewitt, Lleyton AUS 20
Tursunov, Dmitry RUS 24
Safin, Marat RUS 26
Stepanek, Radek CZE 29
Fish, Mardy USA 31
Malisse, Xavier BEL 32
Verdasco, Fernando ESP 34
Benneteau, Julien FRA 36
Bjorkman, Jonas SWE 40
Mathieu, Paul-Henri FRA 42
Monfils, Gael FRA 45
Ginepri, Robby USA 46
Mirnyi, Max BLR 47
Henman, Tim GBR 50
Clement, Arnaud FRA 51
Grosjean, Sebastien FRA 58
Del Potro, Juan Martin ARG 63
Johansson, Thomas SWE 67
Delic, Amer USA 72
Serra, Florent FRA 74
Lopez, Feliciano ESP 75
Hernandez, Oscar ESP 77
Karlovic, Ivo CRO 78
Roitman, Sergio ARG 79
Pless, Kristian DEN 81
Llodra, Michael FRA 82
Kendrick, Robert USA 83
Gulbis, Ernests LAT 85
Srichaphan, Paradorn THA 86
Tipsarevic, Janko SRB 87
Hernych, Jan CZE 90
Kunitsyn, Igor RUS 91
Peya, Alexander AUT 92
Seppi, Andreas ITA 94
Udomchoke, Danai THA 95
Bolelli, Simone ITA 96
Gimelstob, Justin USA 127

Wild Cards
Andreev, Igor RUS
Cilic, Marin CRO

Marat played here twice. He reached the Quarters in 2000 and R16 in 2001.

At the moment Marat is in Moscow practising and preparing for Queen's. He will go to London soon.

Mario Ancic withdrew from Queen's because of injury, which means Marat is now number 9. With only one other witdraw, Marat will be seeded and he might have a Bye.

Article about Marat joining the players field:

Safin Joins Elite Field As Artois Entry List Revealed
FFormer World No.1 and two-time Grand Slam title winner Marat Safin has joined the list of star names set to contest the 2007 Artois Championships at the Queen’s Club in London.Safin, who won the US Open in 2000 and the Australian Open two years ago, joins World No.2 Rafael Nadal, three-time winner Andy Roddick, defending champion Lleyton Hewitt and British No.1 Andy Murray.
“The Artois Championships in 2005 was only my second ATP event and it was great to win my first ATP level match,” said Murray. “It’s a great tournament.”
Top Ten players Novak Djokovic, Fernando Gonzalez and Ivan Ljubicic are also on the official Entry List, which was announced today.It means that six of the current Top Ten will compete on the grass at the Artois Championships, 11-17 June.“We are delighted to add Marat to an already strong field,” said Tournament Director, Ian Wight.British favourite Tim Henman – a semifinalist last year, former finalist Sebastien Grosjean and exciting Frenchman Gael Monfils are also entered.The doubles draw will feature the Bryan Brothers – Mike and Bob, and Andy Murray’s brother, Jamie.The full singles entry list is attached.For the first time at an ATP event in the UK, the electronic line-calling system ‘Hawk-Eye’ will be in operation at the Artois Championships.Giant Screens will be installed at opposite ends of the centre court showing replays of line-calls ‘challenged’ by players. The technology has been greeted with huge acclaim among players, spectators and the media.More fans than ever before will be able to enjoy the Artois Championships with the Centre Court capacity increasing by 400 seats to 6,858.

Round 2 Roland Garros 2007

2007-05-27T21:46:00.000+01:00

Pics from yesterdays match..:(

Marat lost to Tipsarevic 46 46 57:(. Marat, keep going! Don't ever give up!

For an interview after the match: http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/news/interviews/2007-05-30/200705301180536554875.html there is also a video-interview of this. Click on "Video Interview" and the video will start.

For some highlights and stuff from this match and round 1, go to: http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=1929371&ch=1929371&src=ukeurosport and click on tennis. Scroll down for more!

Upcoming tourny is Queen's on a tough (especially for Marat) surface: grass. More coming soon.

Pics of Round 1

2007-05-27T18:04:00.001+01:00

Round 1 Roland Garros 2007

2007-05-27T17:45:00.000+01:00

Marat won! Against Fernando Vincente with 61 63 61. He played a wonderful match, full of confidence! Hopefully he can pull this also to the next round.

For match-statistics: http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/scores/stats/day6/1012ms.html

He will now face either Tipsarevic or Vemic. This will be played in a few days. I'll let you know!

I have found stuff from before and after the match:

Before:
- (Video Interview) http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/tennis/ in the right.. scroll down a little bit.
- (Interview) http://maratsafin.com/content.php?did=10&aid=6b9fcd1757ceec63b46d83ff29b70fd7

After:
- (Article) http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/27052007/58/french-open-safin-happy-quick-win.html
- (Interview) http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/news/interviews/2007-05-27/200705271180293434765.html

I was away for 2 days... sorry for the late updates!

Go Marat!!!

Draw

2007-05-25T15:26:00.000+01:00

The draw is announced!!! For the full draw check this: http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/scores/draws/ms/index.html or (enlarge by clicking on it) the pic above.

ROUND 1: Marat will play a qualifier! So no names yet.. coming soon!

For some previews and articles made about this tourny, check links below in the 'Article-post'.

There are made 2 different pics of Marat practising at RG. I could only copy one of them on to this site for some strange reason, but have a look yourself! http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/players/photos/gallery.html?xmlPage=/en_FR/players/photos/xml/atps741.xml

Go there Marat:)!

Articles

2007-05-23T15:36:00.000+01:00

For full articles and sort of previews, check the following link (copy and past if it doesn't work):

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/breakingnews/feedstory/0,,-6653797,00.html

http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/news/articles/2007-05-04/200705041178294638430.html

Find some more interesting stuff on the official website of RG: www.rolandgarros.com

Roland Garros

2007-05-23T15:18:00.001+01:00

Marat will arive on Thursday, accompanied by his coach Alexander Volkov and his Doctor. Marat will be seeded and is seeded 22th because of withdrawals from Murray and Haas (both injured).

Roland Garros

Place: Paris, France
Date: May 28-June 10, 2007
Draw Size: 128
Surface: Clay
Prize Money: €6,711,040
Tournament Director: Tournament Committee, Federation Francaise de Tennis, Jean-Claude Blanc

The History

Roland-Garros, a never-ending storyHow did Roland-Garros come to be? Why is it named after an aviator? In what year was the tournament first held? Who are the legends of the game to have inscribed their name on the Coupe des Mousquetaires trophy? We take a fond look back at the long and glorious history of the world's greatest clay-court championship.

Way back when...
The stadium that stages one of the world's four major tennis tournaments was built in 1928, but the French men's singles championship goes back much further than that. Originally reserved for members of French clubs, it was first held on the courts of Stade Français club in Paris in 1891. The women's singles were added six years later, it was not until 1925 that the French Tennis Federation decided to open the event to the best foreign players. Thus, the French Internationals were born, and staged alternately at Stade Français and Racing Club de France until the Roland-Garros stadium came into being in 1928.

These Musketeers need a stadium!
1927 was a milestone for French tennis, the year the celebrated French Musketeers (Jacques "Toto" Brugnon, Jean Borotra, Henri Cochet and René Lacoste) pulled off one of the biggest shocks in 20th century sport. The famous foursome upset all the odds by winning the Davis Cup on American soil, and in doing so set up a rematch in 1928, in Paris. Obviously, such a major sporting occasion required a stadium worthy of its stature, and so it was that the Stade Français handed over three hectares of land near Porte d'Auteuil to the French Tennis Federation. The only condition to the offer of land was that the new stadium should bear the name of one of Stade Français' most renowned former members, Roland-Garros, who had died some ten years earlier. Roland-Garros was an aviation pioneer who, on 23 September 1913, had become the first man to fly a plane over the Mediterranean. The 1928 French Internationals were the first event to be held in the new stadium, just before the Musketeers took centre-stage to beat the Americans in their long-awaited rematch.

The post-war period: a golden era beckons
The Musketeers held on to the Davis Cup for another five years, only giving up the famous silver salad bowl in 1933, by which time the French Internationals at Roland-Garros had well and truly established themselves as a major international tournament. Cancelled from 1940 to 1945 due to the Second World War, Roland-Garros went from strength to strength in the post-war period, reflecting tennis' growth into a hugely popular sport-for-all. Another significant turning point came in 1968 when the French Internationals became the first Grand Slam tournament to join the "Open" era. Professionalism brought with it yet more expansion and excitement.

Borg and Evert take up residence at "Roland"
The late 1970s and early 1980s were a magical era for tennis in general, and Roland-Garros in particular. Centre court delighted in a succession of breathtaking displays by the peerless Björn Borg (who won the title a record six times). Other greats of the men's game to have graced the courts of Roland-Garros have included Ivan Lendl, Mats Wilander and more recently Gustavo Kuerten, all of whom have contributed to the legendary reputation of the French Open Championships. The women's singles has had its great champions too: Chris Evert, who had the upper hand in a series of magnificent battles with Martina Navratilova over the years, Steffi Graf, who captured the hearts of the French fans in the twelve years between her first and sixth (and last) title in 1999 and Monica Seles, who was unstoppable in 1990, 91, and 92.

Who will be the next Noah?
Today, the tournament is fully deserving of its reputation as the world's premier clay court event. It is furiously competitive each year, to such an extent that French successes have been few and far between. Since the war, only Nelly Landry (1948), Françoise Durr (1967) and Mary Pierce (2000) among the women, together with Marcel Bernard (1946) and Yannick Noah (1983) in the men's event, have lifted the supreme title. Will a Frenchman be able to re-write the history books? To win at Roland Garros, it almost seems to be a prerequisite for a player to speak Spanish. Most of the current clay court specialists are either Argentinean or Spanish, including of course the current holder, Majorcan left-hander Rafael Nadal, who is the only man in the history of the French Open to win both times he has entered the tournament.

Prize Money (round/points/money)

W 1000 €940,000
F 700 €470,000
SF 450 €235,000
QF 250 €117,500
R16 150 €66,250
R32 75 €38,600
R64 35 €23,280
R128 5 €14,000

Past winner is (ofcourse) Rafael Nadal (2006/2005) and from 2004 it was Gaston Gaudio

For full results of Marat on this Grand Slam: http://www.atptennis.com/5/en/players/playerprofiles/playeractivity.asp?prevtrnnum=0&year=2007&query=Singles&selTournament=520&player=S741&x=1&y=9

Marat once reached the Semi's in 2002 and the Quarters in 2000 (the best results).

The draw will be made on Friday the 25th. Good luck Marat!

Ranking 21th of May

2007-05-21T16:08:00.000+01:00

Marat improved his ranking with 1+, so this means he is now the number 25 of the world. Behind him (26) is Carlos Moya and above him (24) Tursunov. The point difference is pretty small, so just one good result and he will move up many places!

For the full Ranking List: http://www.atptennis.com/3/en/rankings/entrysystem/

Round 2 Hamburg AMS

2007-05-14T19:29:00.000+01:00

Pictures from yesterdays match! Check: he cut his hair!

Marat lost to Ferrero in straight sets: 36 67(15). Marat had 5 setpoints in the tiebreak and did not converted one of them as you can see;). Ferrero needed 5 matchpoints to win this game. It was a very close match and in my opinion he played a terrific match. He was just a bit unlucky. He really fought till the last point, but couldn't finish it in the end. I think we've good our old Marat almost back. Just a few things which can always be better and ofcourse the confidence, but yesterday he showed as again he so no done here yet! He's the best!

Marat will go to Moscow this week, for some more practising and will then to Paris for Rolland Garros on Friday the 25th of May. Come on Marat:)

Round 1 Hamburg AMS

2007-05-12T15:03:00.000+01:00

I found some stuff;) Have a look!

This is a video from an interview:
http://www.atpmastersseries.tv/page/TournamentInterview/0,,11444~1025274,00.html
This is a video from the press-conference: http://dtb-tennis.rent-a-cluster.net/rm/m-safin_14-05-07.rm

Interview in words:
Q: Well done. Good to get that win, but it was an up and down match. First the long lead… What was the reason for these changes?
SAFIN: I started pretty well. I guess he was a little cold. He was pretty nervous, so he could not play his game. He took advantage at 4:0. He just had nothing to lose. I made a couple of mistakes. I did nothing wrong but he just went for it. And it went his way. He just came up to 5:4. The second break was tough for me because I was getting a bit nervous. I did not want to lose this opportunity. I wanted to close the set. Basically in all the games I had deuce or advantage. It was very close and I could not make it. In the tiebreak I was very disappointed because I had my chances an was playing the right game. Finally it went my way. Unfortunately sometimes the luck is not on my side. Sometimes I miss by a little bit.
Q: It is nice to win a match that had so many challenges in it for you, isn't it?
SAFIN: Very nice. Also for the confidence. I am not really in a great position right now. These kind of matches give me a lot of opportunity and confidence. Eventually my game has to come back because I am playing well, moving around really well, my fitness is great, doing the right things. Sometimes I just make some mistakes and everything goes the other way round. Especially now against Ferrero. I just have to take it match by match and make sure I take it point by point. Work, work, work and wait for opportunities.
Q: You brought your ranking right back from somewhere outside the Top 100 to somewhere in the 20ies. Does that mean your confidence is going up with it?
SAFIN: I finished the year 24. From middle of August until end of the season, I lost a lot of matches 7:6 in the third, 7:6 in the fifth against Haas in the US Open, Nalbandian, Madrid, then 7:6 in the semifinal to Blake in Bankog. Then 7:6, 7:6 to Clement in semi finals in Washington. If I would win 2 of these matches I would be Top 20. This year I was also very close to beating Davydenko. I had four match points against Vliegen in Monte Carlo. I was close to beat Roddick in Australia. So it's just something that did not go my way. I am also disappointed because I am stuck between 30 and 20 and don't move up. I need to defend the points in the second part of the season. So luck better starts to be on my side. Hopefully it will come my way.
Q: The tennis is there so is it a mental breakthrough you have to make?
SAFIN: It's just one, two points. I never lost one easy match. I'm running around, I want to play, I'm fighting. Just the last chance slips away.
Q: Is the knee 100%?
SAFIN: Yes, I'm moving around okay. I'm not getting tired. I'm perfect. I work a lot on the physical condition which is very important for me. Now it's a different part that is missing.
Q: The conditions can be slow and heavy here, but you've done well here before. Do you mind the conditions here?
SAFIN: Sometimes it's a bit slow. It depends on the weather. The balls can get heavy. But for the past few years, the balls have changed. Dunlop is a bit heavier than Head. It's okay. It's a little slower than Rome, but it's definitely not too slow. Today I had some bad bounces and mishits. I was a bit tough for me today.
Q: The ATP have been planning a lot of changes to the Tour. Do you have an opinion on that?SAFIN: I think the people, who are in the positions to make the choices, I hope they know what they are doing. I don't want to get involved. We have to let it be and let the people at the top make their choices. We can play tennis but we can't change and make everybody happy. I'm sure that whoever is taking care of it knows what he is doing. Once we have him, let's give him a chance for 4, 5 years to see how it goes. It can't be worse than it used to be. When Mark Miles left, we had no chances. It was going bankrupt, no money. At least we have a lot of sponsors. It is getting better. It's picking up, but we have to believe in our people and make sure to support them, even though they make mistakes. Unfortunately, you want progress without any mistakes. People or tennis players should understand this, not to criticize if somebody makes a small mistake. They should not be shouting. We just have to let it be.

Pictures from the match Safin-Massu:

Marat won 76(7) 64!! Well done Marat!!! He'll next play Juan Carlos Ferrero!
For the whole draw: http://www.atptennis.com/en/common/TrackIt.asp?file=http://www.atptennis.com/1/posting/2007/414/mds.pdf

OOP: http://www.atptennis.com/en/common/TrackIt.asp?file=http://www.atptennis.com/1/posting/2007/414/op.pdf

Hamburg AMS

2007-05-11T21:38:00.000+01:00

Hamburg Masters Am Rothenbaum Germany
Date: 14 - 20 May 2007
Draw Size: 56
Surface: Clay
Prize Money: €1,870,000
Main draw: Saturday, May 12, 2:30 p.m

Champions Tour format
The Champions Tour tournaments run over a minimum of 4 days. The players are split into two groups of four. During the first three days of competition, each player faces off the other three players in his group in a round robin format. The top player from each group contest in the final, while the two players who finish second in each group play off for third and fourth places respectively. Matches are contested over the best of three sets, with the deciding set taking the form of a Champions tie-break. The Champions tie-break is an expanded version of the conventional professional tennis tie-break, whereby the winner is the first player to reach 10 points by a margin of 2. To be eligible to compete on the ATP Champions Tour, players must have been either a World No. 1 during their competitive playing careers, a Grand Slam singles finalist, or a singles player in a victorious Davis Cup team; and they should have retired from the ATP circuit. Each event can also invite two players of its choice to take wild cards. Players compete for points throughout the year to qualify for The Champions Masters. The Masters takes place at the Royal Albert Hall in London at the end of the year; the player field is comprised of the top ten players in the Champions Tour Rankings after all events, plus two wild cards.

Champions Tour point distribution
Winner: 400
Runner-up: 250
3rd place: 200
4th place: 125
No. 5-6: 80
No. 7-8: 60 points

The ATP Tour of Champions Story
1997 saw the debut of the unified worldwide senior tennis circuit. It was an alliance combining the resources of Net Assets, IMG, and the ATP Tour. This unified worldwide circuit was comprised of the ATP Senior Tour of Champions in Europe (which was the successor of the ATP Senior Tour launched in 1992); the Nuveen Tour in North America (which began in 1993); and the Champions Tour on other continents, all sanctioned by the ATP Tour. A total of up to 20 events, featuring great players such as Jimmy Connors, Bjorn Borg, Jose Luis Clerc, Yannick Noah, and Guillermo Vilas, but also John McEnroe, Henri Leconte, Guy Forget, or Mats Wilander, who are still competing on the Champions Tour today. In 1998, Delta Airlines became the title sponsor of the European tour, which became the Delta Air Lines ATP Senior Tour of Champions. The Nuveen Tour stopped in 1999; and the Success Magazine Tour took over in North America for the 2000-2001 season. That was the time when the Tour format was standardized: as opposed to the 8- or 12-man singles elimination format previously used in the U.S.-based tournaments, the round-robin format used in Europe became and still is the format for the whole Champions Tour. In 2002, only the Delta Tour of Champions remained in Europe, with a number of events varying from 7 to 11. In 2004, Stanford Financial became the sponsor of the Champions Tour Rankings, a race leading to the London end-of-year event that became the Champions Masters. The end of 2005 was marked by the termination of the sponsorships of Delta Air Lines and Stanford Financial, opening up the way to a new sponsor and a new title for the ATP Champions Tour in 2006: the Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions.

SITE INFORMATION
Official website: http://www.dtb-tennis.de/AmRothenbaum/
Draws and schedules: http://www.dtb-tennis.de/AmRothenbaum_en/9713.php?selected=8453&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;selectedsub=9709&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;selsubsub=9712
Live-scoring: http://www.protennislive.com/frameset.asp?year=2007&wkno=20&lang=en&tabno=2&eventid=0414&ref=www.atptennis.com

Past Winners (only a few of them):
2006
Tommy Robredo
Paul Hanley/Kevin Ullyett
2005
Roger Federer
Jonas Bjorkman/Max Mirnyi
2004
Roger Federer
Wayne Black/Kevin Ullyett
2003
Guillermo Coria
Mark Knowles/Daniel Nestor
2002
Roger Federer
Mahesh Bhupathi/Jan-Michael Gambill
2001
Albert Portas
Jonas Bjorkman/Todd Woodbridge
2000
Gustavo Kuerten
Mark Woodforde/Todd Woodbridge
1999
Marcelo Rios
Wayne Arthurs/Andrew Kratzmann
1998
Albert Costa
Donald Johnson/Francisco Montana

Marat's Results on this tournament:
Marat had some pretty good results.. have a look:

ATP Masters Series, 15-May-06, O, Clay , Draw: 64
R64 R=Round
Saretta, Flavio (BRA) Name
101 Ranking of the opponent
7-5 0-6 4-6 Score
Stats Statistics of that match

This Event Points: 1, ATP Ranking: 51, Prize Money: US $7,500
ATP Masters Series Hamburg, Germany
ATP Masters Series, 9-May-05, O, Clay , Draw: 64
R64
Martin, Alberto (ESP)
53
6-1 6-0
Stats
R32
Ferrero, Juan Carlos (ESP)
39
6-4 4-6 2-6
Stats
This Event Points: 7, ATP Ranking: 4, Prize Money: US $15,000
Hamburg AMS, Germany
ATP Masters Series, 10-May-04, O, Clay , Draw: 64
R64
Grosjean, Sebastien (FRA)
10
7-6(6) 7-5
Stats
R32
Sargsian, Sargis (ARM)
46
4-6 6-3 6-3
Stats
R16
Melzer, Jurgen (AUT)
68
4-6 4-6
Stats
This Event Points: 15, ATP Ranking: 21, Prize Money: US $27,000
Hamburg TMS, Germany
ATP Masters Series, 13-May-02, O, Clay , Draw: 64
R64
Sanguinetti, Davide (ITA)
52
6-3 6-4
Stats
R32
Martin, Alberto (ESP)
48
6-4 6-2
Stats
R16
Chela, Juan Ignacio (ARG)
25
7-6(6) 7-5
Stats
Q
Hewitt, Lleyton (AUS)
1
6-3 6-1
Stats
S
Robredo, Tommy (ESP)
35
6-4 4-2 RET
Stats
F
Federer, Roger (SUI)
14
1-6 3-6 4-6
Stats
This Event Points: 70, ATP Ranking: 5, Prize Money: US $196,000
Hamburg TMS, Germany
ATP Masters Series, 14-May-01, O, Clay , Draw: 64
R64
Knippschild, Jens (GER)
93
6-2 6-4
Stats
R32
Gaudio, Gaston (ARG)
40
0-6 6-7
Stats
This Event Points: 7, ATP Ranking: 2, Prize Money: US $16,250
Hamburg, Germany
ATP Masters Series, 15-May-00, O, Clay , Draw: 64
R64
Costa, Albert (ESP)
18
7-6(3) 7-6(1)
Stats
R32
Mantilla, Felix (ESP)
64
6-3 6-0
Stats
R16
Rosset, Marc (SUI)
41
6-4 7-5
Stats
Q
Pioline, Cedric (FRA)
5
7-6(4) 4-6 6-3
Stats
S
Rios, Marcelo (CHI)
20
7-6(10) 6-2
Stats
F
Kuerten, Gustavo (BRA)
7
4-6 7-5 4-6 7-5 6-7(3)
Stats
This Event Points: 70, ATP Ranking: 14, Prize Money: US $211,000
Hamburg, Germany
ATP Masters Series, 3-May-99, O, Clay , Draw: 56
R64
Vacek, Daniel (CZE)
65
6-3 7-6(3)
Stats
R32
Voinea, Adrian (ROU)
75
6-4 3-6 3-6
Stats
This Event Points: 26, ATP Ranking: 29, Prize Money: US $14,500

News

2007-05-10T21:23:00.000+01:00

Marat was happy with the level he played against Davydenko yesterday. He will fly to Hamburg tomorrow (Fryday 11 May).

Pics and stuff from round 2/Hamburg info will come tomorrow! Didn't have much time today...

Round 2 Rome AMS

2007-05-08T15:03:00.000+01:00

Marat lost.. I feel so sorry for him:(. I totally can imagine how he must be feeling right now. But eeh, it was Davydenko and he made great match out of it, didn't he? I thought it really had something! He lost 67(4) 57. He also had 1 setpoint in the second set.. was a break ahead in the 1st and the second set but still.. it's Marat. Remember the match against Vliegen?? 4 Matchpoints.. lost. But the next tournament is already starting next week in Hamburg. More news about that coming soon and I'll give you pics and stuff soon here in this post!

For comparing YTD Stats: http://www.atptennis.com/3/en/players/headtohead/popYTDMatchStats.asp?plyr1=S741&plyr2=D402

Good luck!

Round 1 Rome AMS & Stuff from Round 1

2007-05-06T15:24:00.000+01:00

For the order of play: http://www.atptennis.com/en/common/TrackIt.asp?file=http://www.atptennis.com/1/posting/2007/416/op.pdf

Marat won!!!! 26 63 64! Well done Marat! Up next is Davydenko.. Could be interesting! Go Marat

Live-scoring: http://www.protennislive.com/frameset.asp?year=2007&wkno=19&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lang=en&tabno=1&eventid=0416&ref=www.atptennis.com

Well done Marat:) Good luck for your next match!

Attention!!!
If your not able to watch (just like me) on your own tv, you can watch it live and free on the internet! There are 2 different ways so listen carefully! You can choose! I have both cause sometimes the signal isn't that good on the other one and the other way around.

Bet and Win. It's a bet site but you don't have to bet if you don't want to (like me) but you can still register and watch the matches. It's for free (totally). Check: https://www.bwin.com/registration.aspx to register. This website does not always broadcast Marat's matches but it does today:)!
TVU-Player. It's a media player with free tv. The whole system is free to download as well! Check: http://pages.tvunetworks.com/downloads/download.html?id=rdb_us !!! I already clicked on downloading so you only have to follow the instructions! Btw.. if you're done with installing/downloading you have to go down a bit with the 'below' button in your player! The channel is just called 'Tennis (sports). Click on that and it starts itself.
Good luck I hope it works for you!

Stuff....

I found some stuff about today's match.. Have a look;)!

Articles
In the first round, former No. 1 Marat Safin overcame a shaky start before beating American qualifier Amer Delic 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the first round. Against Delic, Safin lost 12 straight points to lose the first set. The Russian regained his composure in the second set, converting his first break of the match to lead 5-3 then serving out to love.
Safin broke in the opening game of the third set and maintained the advantage the rest of the way.
"He started pretty well and was hitting unbelievable winners on the lines — I couldn't get into the game," Safin said. "But then I tried to make him run and play more. It was just a matter of time."
Safin has never advanced past the third round in his seven previous appearances in Rome. He'll next face Davis Cup teammate and fourth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko.
"Next round, I'm going to have to play better," Safin said.

From ATP WEBSITE:

Safin (on playing Davydenko next): "It's a tough match because he's been a long time in the Top 10 already for two years in a row. Played some great matches, great tournaments, a lot of confidence, fast guy, not many mistakes. The only chance I have is that he didn't play well the past couple months, so I have a chance down there. But I have be solid; I have to play my best game and make him move, go for the shots. Make sure that I have my serve and stay with him."

Little interview from tournament website:

Despite pulling back to the top 30 Marat Safin, the former world number one and winner of two Grand Slam championships, is not on top of his game, his said after his three-set win on Tuesday.
QUESTION: We all know that when you play your best game you can beat anybody in the world. How have you been feeling lately? Do you feel you're coming into form?
SAFIN: Well I've just had difficult months. A lot of difficult matches that slipped away from just in front of me. It was difficult to play without the confidence, because every person makes you play and every guy wants to beat you. They see you are not playing 100% and you're not feeling well on the courts, so there's a good chance for them to beat me. Every time I lose the confidence is not there.
QUESTION: When did you last have it?
SAFIN: Right after the final in Vegas I played terrible. In Miami I had chances there, and then I also had four matchpoints in Monte Carlo in the second round against Vliegen.So it has kind of put me in a difficult position because especially on clay its very tough to play without confidence because you have to run a lot and make sure you play all the balls. It's tough, because the courts start to look small and the ball very small. They're not falling down on the court sometimes.

Pics:

News Flash

2007-05-06T15:17:00.000+01:00

I'm back from holidays and I hope you didn't mind to do it without updates for a week. But now I'm back and I have to following news things from the past week in a row:

Marat confirmed Queen's entry and will play in the grass tournament from 11 till 17 June.
Marat practised in Valencia and sometimes he practised with David Ferrer on court!
Marat plays a qualifier in the first round.

Couldn't find anymore for now, but I'll let you know it here if I find some more!

kisses

Internazionali BNL d'Italia

2007-04-27T19:09:00.000+01:00

Up next is the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome. It's a Master-event, so pretty important as well!

Tournament Info:

Place: Rome, Italy
Date: May 7-13, 2007
Draw Size: 64
Surface: Clay
Prize Money: €2,082,500
Tournament Director: Sergio Palmieri
Ticket Hotline:+39 06 3283 7240
Website: www.internazionaliditalia.it

TV-Schedule:

ATP MASTERS SERIES
Australia: Fox Sports (all matches)
Belgium: BETV (all matches)
Brazil: Globosat (all matches)
Bulgaria: Diema (all matches)
Canada: RDS (all matches)
Canada: TSN (all matches)
China: CCTV (to be confirmed)
China: Nu Com Media (all matches)
Czech Republic: Galaxie Sport (all matches)
Fiji: Fiji TV (all matches)
France: Sport+ (all matches)
GBR: Sky Sports (all matches)
Greece & Cyprus: Supersport (all matches)
Holland: Sport1 (all matches)
Hungary, Romania, Serbia: IKO Sport Club (all matches)
Italy: Sky Italia (all matches)
Macedonia: TV4 (all matches)
Malta: Melita Cable (all matches)
Norway: TV2 Norway (all matches)
Poland: Polsat (all matches)
Portugal: Sport TV (all matches)
Russia: NTV+ (all matches)
Scandinavia: Ladbrokes (all matches)
Scandinavia: Viasat (all matches)
Switzerland: SRG (all matches)
Spain: TVE (all matches)
Thailand: BBTV (all matches)
Ukraine: Megasport (all matches)
Usa: ESPN (highlights)
Usa: The Tennis Channel (all matches)
Africa: Supersport international (all matches)
American Forces Network: AFN (all matches)
Arabic Language: Al-Jazeera Sports Channel (all matches)
Asia: ESPN Star Sports (all matches)
Europe (excluding France, Italy, Spain & GBR): Betandwin (all matches)
Latina America, Isreael, Northern Africa, New Zeland: ESPN International (all matches)

Round, points, money
W 500 €340,000
F 350 €170,000
SF 225 €85,000
QF 125 €42,000
R16 75 €21,250
R32 35 €11,800
R64 5 €5,930

Past winners:

SINGLES
DOUBLES
2006
Rafael Nadal
Mark Knowles/Daniel Nestor
2005
Rafael Nadal
Michael Llodra/Fabrice Santoro
2004
Carlos Moya
Mahesh Bhupathi/Max Mirnyi
2003
Felix Mantilla
Wayne Arthurs/Paul Hanley
2002
Andre Agassi
Martin Damm/Cyril Suk
2001
Juan Carlos Ferrero
Wayne Ferreira/Yevgeny Kafelnikov
2000
Magnus Norman
Martin Damm/Dominik Hrbaty
1999
Gustavo Kuerten
Ellis Ferreira/Rick Leach
1998
Marcelo Rios
Mahesh Bhupathi/Leander Paes
1997
Alex Corretja
Mark Knowles/Daniel Nestor
1996
Thomas Muster
Byron Black/Grant Connell
1995
Thomas Muster
Cyril Suk/Daniel Vacek
1994
Pete Sampras
Yevgeny Kafelnikov/David Rikl
1993
Jim Courier
Jacco Eltingh/Paul Haarhuis
1992
Jim Courier
Jakob Hlasek/Marc Rosset
1991
Emilio Sanchez
Omar Camporese/Goran Ivanisevic
1990
Thomas Muster
Sergio Casal/Emilio Sanchez
1989
Alberto Mancini
Jim Courier/Pete Sampras
1988
Ivan Lendl
Jorge Lozano/Todd Witsken
1987
Mats Wilander
Guy Forget/Yannick Noah
1986
Ivan Lendl
Guy Forget/Yannick Noah
1985
Yannick Noah
Anders Jarryd/Mats Wilander
1984
Andres Gomez
Ken Flach/Robert Seguso
1983
Jimmy Arias
Francisco Gonzalez/Victor Pecci
1982
Andres Gomez
Heinz Gunthardt/Balazs Taroczy
1981
Jose-Luis Clerc
Hans Gildemeister/Andres Gomez
1980
Guillermo Vilas
Mark Edmondson/Kim Warwick
1979
Vitas Gerulaitis
Peter Fleming/Tomas Smid
1978
Bjorn Borg
Victor Pecci/Belus Prajoux
1977
Vitas Gerulaitis
Brian Gottfried/Raul Ramirez
1976
Adriano Panatta
Brian Gottfried/Raul Ramirez
1975
Raul Ramirez
Brian Gottfried/Raul Ramirez
1974
Bjorn Borg
Brian Gottfried/Raul Ramirez

Marat's Results:

2006: round 2
2005: round 2
2004: round 3
2002: round 2
2001: round 2
2000: round 2
1999: round 2

Round 2 Doubles

2007-04-25T20:02:00.000+01:00

Marat and Dmitry lost to Erlich and Ram 67(8) 76(6) 911. Though they lost, it was a very close match as you can see at the score. A sad ending but I think it was a good match! I haven't found any articles/interviews/pictures yet of this match (they do more with the singles) but if I get some I will post it here:)

Stuff

2007-04-24T18:52:00.000+01:00

After this dissapointing loss I found some articles and more stuff. Apparently Marat is moving on. And I'm so glad of that:) That's what we all should do, all the time!

From the Eurosport website:

Marat Safin said he was not overly concerned about his recent poor run of form after he made another early exit, this time in the first round of the Barcelona Open.
The Russian former world number one was beaten 6-4 7-6 by Italian Simone Bolelli, the world number 103.
That followed his second-round defeat by Belgian Kristof Vliegen in Monte Carlo last week, when he squandered four match points, having won the first set 6-0.
Safin's win-loss record this year is now 10-8 after losing his opening matches in three of his last four tournaments, but the former U.S. Open and Australian Open champion said he was not bothered by his apparent loss of form.

"I don't care," he said. "I am playing well, I am still 26 in the rankings.
"With one good result I will be top 20, but I don't really care about the rankings any more. I just need to stay focused on my tennis."

Safin's best performance of the year came in the Davis Cup earlier this month when he won the deciding rubber against Paul-Henri Mathieu to give Russia a quarter-final victory over France on indoor clay in Moscow.
On that occasion, Safin barely missed a ball, the kind of form that took him to the top of the rankings and his two grand slam titles.

The Russian's early exits from Monte Carlo and Barcelona cost him the chance to climb the rankings, but Safin said his confidence was unaffected.

"With all of your losses, you try to put them behind you," he said. "There is always next week and it's difficult to play well all the time.

"I couldn't find my game today on the court. It was pretty slippery, and I didn't play my best tennis so that's why. I barely had a chance.

"He was solid, he had nothing to lose. He went for his shots, he was serving well in the tiebreak, he just did his job and he had no pressure at all."

Safin's next tournament will be the Masters Series event in Rome, beginning a week on Monday.

"I will just take it easy and practise and do my job," he said.

Pictures:

Round 1

2007-04-21T16:14:00.000+01:00

Round 1 singles, there's not much to say about this one. They have never met before. Bolellie is the number 121th of the world. His highest ranking was 103. I'm sure he's a good opponent, but he's not like any of the top10-players. We'll see how it goes!

He plays doubles as well as you know now. Marat and Dmitry played doubles with eachother many times before so hopefully they will do well this tourny!

It's not clear yet when Marat plays. The tournament started today, but I don't think Marat will play tomorrow because there playing qualifiers in the weekend. Well, that's it for today I guess.
I'll keep you informed!

Doubles round 1: Marat and Dmitry have won there doubles! With 6-0 76(6)! Good job! In Round 2 they'll play J.Erlich and A.Ram. On this tournament, they are seeded as third.. So will see! Good luck guys!

Singles round 1: Marat lost.. 46 67(5). There was nothing to do about it. I think we just need to be supportive now.. I read other forums and there was so much anger and hate there. I can't believe those people! I mean, he did his best and it won't help him or anybody if you keep saying that he should retire and this and that.. Horrible! I found some stuff but I'll put it in a new post!

Draw announcing!

2007-04-21T13:42:00.000+01:00

The draw for Barcelona is announced.

Singles:Marat will play Simone Bolelli from Italy in the first round. He could meet Sam Querry in the second and Juan Ignacio Chela in the 3rd. And Nadal is waiting for him in the quarters...
What to think of this draw? Is it good or bad one, cause you never know what's good or bad with Marat!
Let's give him our best support, so he can show us his best tennis!

Doubles: yes, he plays doubles as well! That was new for me too! He plays with Dmitry Tursunov and the first round is against Jarkko Nieminen and Robert Lindstedt. Good luck int your doubles too!

For whole draw: http://www.atptennis.com/en/common/TrackIt.asp?file=/1/posting/2007/425/MDS.pdf or check picture below:

Marat flew to Barcelona on Saturday, with company of his friend Danny and his fitnesscoach Miguel Maseo.

Interview

2007-04-21T13:35:00.000+01:00

From the official website, an interview about his start in this clay-season.

We caught up with Marat over the week-end in Moscow just before his departure to Barcelona.
We wanted to discuss his feeling regarding the beginning of the clay court season.

Q. Hi Marat. How do you feel and when are you leaving for Barcelona?
A. I'm feeling good. I feel like I have my energies back after the disappointment in Monte Carlo. I even thought about skipping Barcelona after my loss in Monte Carlo because I felt completely drained of energies, but the last few days at home have recharged my "batteries" again.
Q. What really happened during the match in Monte Carlo (Vliegen)?
A. I felt that I had full control of the match. However always after winning a set 6-0 it is a dangerous position because you know that the opponent is going to change his game and start to attack more and play more aggressive and it is always important to try and break in the second set in order to continue the momentum. I didn't manage to get a break up in the second set and in the tie break I had my chances (3 match points). In the third set I was up a break but by that time it started to get darker and the courts became very fast and I didn't manage to capitalize my lead and lost my serve and lost the game.
Q. It must have been very disappointing?
A. It was one of my most disappointing losses because an easy match turned into a very difficult one, and I was looking forward to playing Nadal who is the "King" of clay and as I have never played him before, I wanted to challenge myself by playing him.
Q. How do you re-group mentally after such a disappointment?
A. It's not easy as a lot of things were going through my mind but with the support of Friends and my Team and with my experience I decided to go home for a few days, clear my head and start all over again. Now I'm just trying to be competitive in all my matches and get as many wins under my belt and to hope that my confidence will return, and with that a good streak of wins.
Q. Who is going to be traveling with you to Barcelona?
A. My long time childhood friend Danny Gomez who I grew up with together in Valencia, as well as my fitness coach, Miguel will join me in Barcelona. Sasha Volkov my coach, will most probably join me at the Masters Series events in Rome and Hamburg and on to the French.
Q. What are your plans for the week after Barcelona?
A. I am not scheduled to play the week after and will probably go to Valencia to practice and get ready for the Masters Series event.
Q. Going a step back to the Davis Cup tie against France, can you explain to your fans exactly what happened during the tie and why you were not playing the entire tie and then came up so brilliantly for the final and decisive rubber?
A.We have great depth in our Davis Cup Team and don't forget that I had been traveling overseas sincere the trip to Chile. I was very tired and the Captain decided to play the singles with two other players and I was scheduled to play the doubles. I was also suffering from serious blisters on my feet. This happens to me sometimes when I change surfaces until I get adjusted to the new surface. A Davis Cup always has an element of surprises and when Davydenko could not play the rubber on the last day and Andreev stepped in, we were all sure that he would beat Grosjean and close the tie. It was a risk, but don't forget that Youzhny was not fit for the last rubber due to his tiring match on the first day and I was not fit because of my blisters. After Andreev lost and the score was 2-2 I was shocked that I would have to play the decisive rubber in my condition, but like always, in Davis Cup and especially playing in Russia with the support of the great crowd, I put the pain and inconvenience aside and really played a terrific game.
Q. How do you feel about the semi final tie against Germany?
A. Tommy Haas is in great shape this year and Germany has a very in depth squad and a good doubles team, but I feel that in Moscow most likely on clay courts again, we will be the favorite team and will probably make the finals again for the second year in a row. I think this will be a tremendous achievement because many times after a team wins Davis Cup there is a natural let down so if we can make it again it will show that we have a team with very positive character. There is only one problem with reaching the finals again this year!
Q. What is the problem?
A. It will mean that my vacation at the end of the year will be very short again for the second year in a row!!!

Thank you so much for giving us of your time.Have a successful trip to Spain.
Marat - thanks and regards to all my Fans

Open Seat Barcelona

2007-04-19T14:26:00.000+01:00

I know, it's not nice to start about a new tournament after this sad loss. But we have to move on just like Marat, right? I couldn't find any interviews yet, about his win and loss, but if I find some interviews I'll post them in 'Round 2' post. So here is Marat's next tournament. I think he can do well, under whatever circumstances he may get. Cause I don't think it matters anymore, with Marat, if he plays top-10 or top-100 players.

Open Seat Barcelona, starting on next Monday (23 April) till Sunday (29 April)

Official website: http://www.openseatbarcelona.com/1/en/home/

Playerslist 2007

Rafael Nadal
ESP
2
Nikolay Davydenko
RUS
4
Tommy Robredo
ESP
7
David Nalbandian
ARG
10
Andy Murray
GBR
14
David Ferrer
ESP
15
Jarkko Nieminen
FIN
19
Dmitry Tursunov
RUS
21
Juan Carlos Ferrero
ESP
23
Marat Safin
RUS
24
Radek Stepanek
CZE
26
Robin Soderling
SWE
27
Agustin Calleri
ARG
29
Juan Ignacio Chela
ARG
31
Nicolas Almagro
ESP
32
Fernando Verdasco
ESP
33
Ivo Karlovic
CRO
34
Carlos Moya
ESP
36
Benjamin Becker
GER
38
Gaston Gaudio
ARG
41
Hyung-Taik Lee
KOR
47
Kristof Vliegen
BEL
48
Gael Monfils
FRA
48
Paradorn Srichaphan
THA
52
Filippo Volandri, ITA
ITA
54
Max Mirnyi, BLR
BLR
55
Juan Monaco
ARG
56
Philipp Kohlschreiber
GER
59
Guillermo Canas
ARG
60
Nicolas Lapentti
ECU
61
Sam Querrey
USA
67
Guillermo Garcia
ESP
68
Vincent Spadea
USA
70
Evgeny Korolev
RUS
71
Alberto Martin, ESP
ESP
75
Igor Kunitsyn
RUS
78
Teimuraz Gabashvili
RUS
80
Thomas Johansson
SWE
85
Yen-Hsun Lu
TPE
91
Feliciano Lopez, ESP
ESP
92
Potito Starace, ITA
ITA
93
Paul Goldstein
USA
95
Oscar Hernandez
ESP
98

Marats Results on this tournament:
Marat played this tournament 4 times with these (pretty) good results:
2005: round 1, lost to Jose Acasuco with 46 46
2003: final, lost to Carlos Moya with 75 62 62 03 ret.
2000: winner, won from Juan Carlos Ferrero with 63 63 64
1999: round 2, lost to Tommy Robredo with 61 46 46
1998: round 3, lost to Carlos Costa with 46 63 26

Tournament information
Dates: April 21-29, 2007
Site: Real Club de Tenis Barcelona 1899
Bosch 1 Gimpera 5-13083034
Barcelona SpainTel: +34 93 2052117
Fax: +34 93 2803273
Tournament Director: Sixte Cambra
Surface: Clay
Prize Money: € 850,000,-

Race Points - Prize Money

Winner 60 - €130,200
Finalist 42 - €68,500
Semifinalist 27 - €36,000
Quarterfinalist 15 - €19,000
Round 16, 5 - €10,000
Round 32, 3 - €5,250
Round 56 1 - €2,770

Ticket Information
Click here for ticket information
Players
Click here for players
For more tournament-info: http://www.openseatbarcelona.com/en/tourn_info/

Past winners

2005 Rafael Nadal (ESP) d J Ferrero (ESP) 6-1 7-6(4) 6-3
L. Paes/N.Zimonjic/ d F. Lopez/R.Nadal 6-3 6-3
2004 Tommy Robredo (ESP) d Gaston Gaudio (ARG) 6-3 4-6 6-2 3-6 6-3
M.Knowles/D.Nestor d M.Hood/S.Prieto 4-6 6-3 6-4
2003 Carlos Moyà (ESP) d Marat Safin (RUS) 5-7 6-2 6-2 3-0 ret.
B. Bryan/M. Bryan d C. Haggard/R. Koenig 6-4 6-3
2002 Gastón Gaudio (ARG) d Albert Costa (ESP) 6-4 6-0 6-2
M. Hill/D. Vacek d L. Arnold/G. Etlis 6-4 6-4
2001 Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP) d Carlos Moyà (ESP) 4-6 7-5 6-3 3-6 7-5
D. Johnson/J. Palmer d T. Robredo/F. Vicente 7-6(2) 6-4
2000 Marat Safin (RUS) d Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP) 6-3 6-3 6-4
N. Kulti/M. Tillström d P. Haarhuis/S. Stolle 6-2 6-7(2) 7-6(5)
1999 Félix Mantilla (ESP) d Karim Alami (Mar) 7-6(2) 6-3 6-3
P. Haarhuis/Y. Kafelnikov d Bertolini/Brandi 7-5 6-3
1998 Todd Martin (USA) d Alberto Berastegui (ESP) 6-2 1-6 6-3 6-2
J. Eltingh/P. Haarhuis d E. Ferreira/R. Leach 7-5 6-0

Round 2

2007-04-17T19:05:00.000+01:00

O god.. This was a terrible match or you could say it was a great one. I don't agree with both of them. I feel so unincredibly sorry for Marat. He lost to Vliegen 60 67(8) 46! He had 4 matchpoints in the second set en led 4-1 in the 3rd! I must say Vliegen is mentally very strong, but still. Marat is a better player! I don't think this is good for his confidence.. He was almost there.. Now you can see what tennis can do. You can still be the better one, but if you think you are already there, you're making mistakes (and believe me.. it's true)!

No Nadal in the 3rd. And I don't think Vliegen has enough strength to beat this guy and Marat would have had. So this is just SHIT! Can't describe it..

Good luck Marat! Remember: it will come one day! We still love you!

Round 2

2007-04-16T14:32:00.000+01:00

Marat is playin Vliegen right now! His match was rescheduled cause of withdrew Murray! He plays on center court now.. Sorry for this late update, but I wasn't at home myself!
Go Marat!

Live scoring: http://www.protennislive.com/frameset.asp?year=2007&wkno=16&lang=en&tabno=1&eventid=0410&ref=www.atptennis.com

Marat played Vliegen only ones before, which was on hardcourt Madrid Masters in 2006. He did defeat him with 63 62. Hopefully he can do it again!

For an updated tv-schedule: http://montecarlo.masters-series.com/4/en/event/tv/default.asp

Good luck tomorrow Marat! We know you can do it!

He won!!!

2007-04-15T16:15:00.000+01:00

And again in his lucky lime shirt;)! And we like it..!

Yeeh! He won! But it wasn't easy though! 57 63 62 for our Marat! Good job!

Next he will play either Vliegen or Mathieu.. they are playing tomorrow, so it could be that they play on Tuesday. But perhaps because of rest for tomorrows winner, they play on Wednesday.

Articles and pictures are coming soon!

Monte Carlo Draw & Sunday!

2007-04-14T14:17:00.000+01:00

The draw is announced! Marat will first meet Jarkko Nieminen(Fin) in the 1st round. Marat is not seeded. He has a 5-2 record against him and they last played in Indian Wells when Nieminen won 64 63. If he gets through, he could meet Mathieu(!) or Vliegen and perhaps, if he also wins that one, he could meet Nadal in the 3rd!

All the usual links:

For the whole draw: http://www.atptennis.com/en/common/TrackIt.asp?file=http://www.atptennis.com/1/posting/2007/410/mds.pdf

For head-to-head statistics: http://www.atptennis.com/5/en/players/headtohead/?player1=safin&player2=jarkko+nieminen

For the order of play: http://www.atptennis.com/en/common/TrackIt.asp?file=http://www.atptennis.com/1/posting/2007/410/op.pdf

(For normal site: http://montecarlo.masters-series.com/1/en/home/ and for tournament info check post below)

For the tv-schedule: http://montecarlo.masters-series.com/4/en/event/tv/ (only this is not yet updated, cause it's from last year but it will be soon, I guess)

For live-scoring: http://www.protennislive.com/frameset.asp?year=2007&wkno=16&lang=en&tabno=3&eventid=0410&ref=www.atptennis.com

(sorry for the mistake, it was only today when qualfiers played)
Marat plays tomorrow! On centercourt, the 3rd match after a start on 11.00 am (CE(S)T). For a time difference: www.timeanddate.com (type your city in the bar left, above).
Let's all be supportive! You can do it Marat!
Davai Marat!

Monte Carlo AMS & News

2007-04-13T17:34:00.000+01:00

Unfortunatly not much news this week. From what I've heard I know that Marat flew to Monte Carlo today (after spending a few days in Moscow, probably practising). The tournament starts on Monday, 14 April, so the draw will be announced soon, hopefully!
Let's just hope Marat does well in this tournament and I'll keep you informed!
kisses

Here just some tournament info:

Website: http://montecarlo.masters-series.com/1005/

Masters Series Monte-Carlo presented by ROLEX
April 14-22, 2007
S.M.E.T.T 48, boulevard d’Italie
Le Puccini
BP 212 MC 98004 MONACO

CEDEXTél : 00377-97-98-70-00
Fax : 00377-97-98-70-01

Surface: Claycourt
Draw size: 56 players
Prize money: €2,082,500 euros
2006 Champion:Rafaël NADAL (ESP)
Format: Best of 3 sets

COME TO THE TOURNAMENT:

Last year, Marat lost to Mathieu (!), in the 1st round with 60 75.

2005: Marat lost to Ferrero, in the 3rd round with 62 64

2004: Marat lost to Coria, in semi-final with 46 61 36

2003: Marat lost to Moya, in quarter-final with 16 62 67

and so on... (for more results: http://www.atptennis.com/5/en/players/playerprofiles/playeractivity.asp?prevtrnnum=605&year=0&query=Singles&selTournament=410&player=S741&x=21&y=6 )

Previous winners

1969 Tom Okker (NED)
1970 Zeljko Franulovic (CRO)
1971 Ilie Nastase (ROM)
1972 Ilie Nastase (ROM)
1973 Ilie Nastase (ROM)
1974 Andrew Pattison (RSA)
1975 Manuel Orantes (ESP)
1976 Guillermo Vilas (ARG)
1977 Bjorn Borg (SWE)
1978 Raul Ramirez (MEX)
1979 Bjorn Borg (SWE)
1980 Bjorn Borg (SWE)
1981 Guillermo Vilas (ARG)
1982 Guillermo Vilas (ARG)
1983 Mats Wilander (SWE)
1984 Henrik Sundstrom (SWE)
1985 Ivan Lendl (USA)
1986 Joakim Nystrom (SWE)
1987 Mats Wilander (SWE)
1988 Ivan Lendl (USA)
1989 Alberto Mancini (ARG)
1990 Andreï Chesnokov (RUS)
1991 Sergi Bruguera (ESP)
1992 Thomas Muster (AUT)
1993 Sergi Bruguera (ESP)
1994 Andrei Medvedev (UKR)
1995 Thomas Muster (AUT)
1996 Thomas Muster (AUT)
1997 Marcelo Rios (CHI)
1998 Carlos Moya (ESP)
1999 Gustavo Kuerten (BRA)
2000 Cédric Pioline (FRA)
2001 Gustavo Kuerten (BRA)
2002 Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP)
2003 Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP)
2004 Guillermo Coria (ARG)
2005 Rafael Nadal (ESP)
2006 Rafael Nadal (ESP)

Davis Cup Photo's!

2007-04-10T12:44:00.000+01:00

I found some amazing photo's on the TGFR-website. I was allowed to put the link on this blog, so thanks a lot TGFR!!!

The link: http://guyfromrussia.proboards48.com/index.cgi?board=fanreports&action=display&thread=1176135798 (copy and paste if it doesn't work)

There all from the Davis Cup this weekend, with Marat sitting on the bench!

Enjoy!

Pictures of Day 3 Davis Cup

2007-04-09T08:43:00.000+01:00

Day 3 Davis Cup & what next!

2007-04-07T16:38:00.000+01:00

Russia - Germany, from 21-10 till 23-10 2007, again in Russia.

Head-to-head is 5-3, but they last played in 1999 (Russia won).

For head-to-head details: http://www.daviscup.com/teams/headtohead.asp?lstNation1=RUS&lstNation2=GER

The other semi-final is U.S.A - Sweden.

Official website: www.daviscup.com

For a video of Marat's match: www.daviscup.tv , but you have to register!

Russia won 3-2! And Marat played!

Today was such an exciting day! Unbelieveble! Igor Andreev played Sebastien Grosjean and unfortunatly he lost: 57 64 62 36 46. So there had to be a desciding rubber. The official schedule was Youhzny vs. Mathieu. But Tarpischev replaced Youhzny for Safin! Our Safin! So that was just great, but he won aswell! 76(3) 63 62. Without one break against Marat. Just great.
This was all so great for the Russian team, but I think this is good for his confidence aswell.

Here some stuff I found after the match...

Safin the hero once more as Russia again prove too strong

Whatever else Marat Safin goes on to achieve in his career, he will remain one of Moscow's favourite sons, and he has just enhanced his reputation still further. For the second time in four months, Safin won a live fifth rubber in his home city, to see Russia through to the semifinals and another home tie against Germany.It is a mark of the strength of the Russian team that Shamil Tarpischev could afford to hold back his twice-Grand Slam champion, twice-Davis Cup winner and former world No 1 and throw him in for a final rubber. Part of that decision was dictated by blisters on Safin's feet that prevented him from practising much this past week, but blisters or not, nothing stopped him playing another superb Davis Cup match, sending down 15 aces in a 76(3) 63 62 victory over the luckless Paul-Henri Mathieu.

A third fifth rubber loss for Mathieu

You have to feel sorry for Mathieu. He has now played three live Davis Cup fifth rubbers, all against Russia, and lost them all. But while he failed to handle the pressure in his defeats to Mikhail Youzhny in the 2002 final and to Igor Andreev in the 2005 quarterfinals, there can be no blame this time. He played a very solid match, fighting off four break points at 5-5 in the first set. On another day he might well have beaten the erratic Safin, but this was a day when Safin was on form and on song, and there was nothing Mathieu could do once he had lost the first set tiebreak."I think it was surprising for me that I could play such good tennis," said Safin. "I was injured for a couple of days, I couldn't practise because of the blisters, so it was pretty amazing. I was so confident, for some reason. I felt I was going to win, and with such confidence I felt there was no chance it would go five sets."Safin's win ended a day - indeed a tie - full of drama. It was the only straight sets score of the weekend, which saw three successive five-setters.

Grosjean used guile and cunning to beat the bigger player

In the third of them, Sebastien Grosjean came back from being overpowered for two and a half sets by Andreev to win 75 46 26 63 64 in four minutes short of four hours. It was a wonderful match, and those tennis purists who delight in the ability of the little guy to use guile and cunning to beat bigger and more powerful players would have loved it.But ultimately it wasn't enough for the visitors. Four times since December 2002 the French have played Russia, and four times they have lost. Guy Forget gambled on sacrificing his best doubles team in favour of greater singles strength, and it nearly worked. The doubles could have gone either way, and Grosjean proved an admirable replacement for Richard Gasquet, who woke up on Sunday morning still tired after his four hours 48 minutes on court with Youzhny on Friday night, and suffering from sore feet. Yet the French will have a sore head after coming so close, and once again failing to overpower the Russian bear.Russia will now host Germany in September's semifinals, probably in Moscow, but results elsewhere mean the Russians can no longer host the final. If they beat Germany, they would be away to Sweden or USA. But this weekend has shown that, whether home or away, it will be mighty difficult to dislodge Russia from the top of the Davis Cup nations ranking.

Here the only video I could find of the match (a B-E-A-U-TIFUL smash from Marat): http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1nsaw_smash-safin

Related Links on other websites
> Information from RTF
> Infos en francais - FFT

Related Links on Daviscup.com
> Tie Information
> Scorecards and stats from this tie
> Grosjean digs deep to force a fifth
> Tarpischev calls it right again
> The expected score but by a remarkable route
> Mathieu puts visitors in front
> Battle of the Captains begins with a big gamble

Interviews
Interview with Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA) (MP3 format)
Interview with Marat Safin (RUS) (MP3 format)

More pictures

2007-04-07T09:46:00.000+01:00

Day 2 Davis Cup

2007-04-07T09:02:00.000+01:00

Nicolay Davydenko* & Igor Andreev VS. Sebastien Grosjean & Micheal Llodra

Marat is replaced by Nicolay Davydenko for the doubles today.. The 'rumours' are that he had blisters on his feet, but these are not for sure. It could also just be a tactic thing from Tarpischev, but I'm not sure now. I'll keep you informed!

They won! 36 75 63 36 63!!! It's now 2-1 for Russia!

2 video's from doubles match:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ngcd_coupe-davis-double-frarus

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1nf90_richard-gasquet-coupe-davis-intervi

The most recent articles after the match:

Tarpischev calls it right again

You have to hand it to Shamil Tarpischev. The Russian captain, who has pulled off several shock selections over the past few months, pulled off another with an unexpected doubles team of Igor Andreev and Nikolay Davydenko. Yet the unlikely lads pulled off a 36 75 63 36 63 victory against France's Sebastien Grosjean and Michael Llodra to give Russia a 2-1 lead going into the final day of this fascinating tie.Some may say Tarpischev had no choice, with Marat Safin reportedly suffering from blisters and Mikhail Youzhny coming off a four-hour 48-minute singles on Friday night. But the selection will have done nothing to damage the 59-year-old’s reputation as one of the wiliest captains in the history of the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas.

Russians have a shaky start

Tarpischev is well aware of his history as well as his tennis, and will be aware of Napoleon Bonaparte’s famous dictum that he wanted generals with luck as much as skill. Well the Russian pair had their stroke of luck just when they needed it, to help them turn round an inauspicious start and deliver a performance that grew in confidence as the match wore on.Although they have played a fair bit together on the tour, and won the Moscow title in 2004, Andreev and Davydenko are not natural doubles players. That was apparent in an opening set that went comfortably to France, thanks to a break of the Davydenko serve in the fourth game. With both Russians staying back after all their serves, the match became a battle of the French bearing down on the net, and the Russians trying to get the ball at their feet. By and large the French were doing their job better.

Controversial line call upsets French dynamics

In the third game of the second, Davydenko’s serve was again in trouble. He found himself at 15-40, second serve. The serve looked to go just long, but there was no call. Grosjean returned and Andreev put away the volley, at which point the French pointed to the mark in the clay which they claimed showed the serve had been long. Yet the umpire, Andreas Egli, maintained Grosjean had played the point so refused to accept the challenge and stayed in his chair. The French were furious, saying they stopped playing immediately. In such circumstances the umpire has to make a subjective judgement, and whether the French agree with him or not, this was a legitimate application of the rules.The Russians saved the second break point, Davydenko held serve, and from then the tenor of the match was different. The French pair still looked the likelier to break, but at 5-6, Grosjean was broken and after 87 minutes the match was level. It was Grosjean’s serve which cracked in the eighth game of the third, as Russia took a 2-1 lead. Three consecutive breaks at the start of the fourth left the French ahead, and a Llodra ace levelled the match after two hours 48 minutes.

France remain confident
For a while, neither team seemed to have an advantage in the fifth, but France’s captain Guy Forget may be left with nightmares over his decision to leave out Arnaud Clement, as it was Clement’s replacement, Grosjean, who dropped serve for the fourth time in the match to give Russia a 5-3 lead, and Andreev, the more secure server of the two Russians, sealed victory in just under three and a half hours.To their credit, the French refused to blame the dispute with Egli for their defeat, and were still confident of pulling off both the final day’s rubbers. Forget had sacrificed his best doubles team for greater singles strength, so his gamble could yet pay off. And he will take comfort from the fact that when Russia beat France the last three times these teams played each other, France had won the doubles. Maybe this time the fates will be reversed.

Some articles I found after the match:

From http://www.daviscup.com/news/matchreport.asp?id=14185:

Defending champions hold steady to take control

Igor Andreev and Nikolay Davydenko fought off a stern challenge from French duo Sebastien Grosjean and Michael Llodra to put Russia 2-1 ahead after the doubles.Davydenko was making his Davis Cup doubles debut and it took a while for him and Andreev to gel but after losing the first set, they combined well to take the next two. The French fought back to take the fourth set before the Russian pair secured the vital break in the fifth set to emerge 36 75 63 36 63 winners after three hours 23 minutes.Russia is now just one match away from reaching the semifinals for the third year in a row while France has it all to do. The winner of the tie will be at home to Germany, who defeated Belgium with a day to spare, in September's semifinals.

From http://www.eurosport.com/tennis/davis-cup/2007/sport_sto1142329.shtml:

Igor Andreev and Nikolay Davydenko beat Sebastien Grosjean and Michael Llodra 3-6 7-5 6-3 3-6 6-3 in doubles to give Russia a 2-1 lead over France in their Davis Cup world group quarter-final.
Before Saturday, no Russian or Soviet pair had won against France in Davis Cup doubles, since their first meeting in 1973.
France's Paul-Henri Mathieu had upset world number four Davydenko in the opening singles on Friday before Russia's Mikhail Youzhny levelled the score in a marathon match against Richard Gasquet.
Davydenko replaced Marat Safin for the doubles.
"It was a difficult match," Andreev said. "We put up a fight and the French maybe started getting nervous. We had a few chances and we used them."

For pictures of the match: www.daviscup.com -> Photo Gallery

For some more information:

Related Links on other websites
> Information from RTF
> Infos en francais - FFT

Related Links on Daviscup.com
> Tie Information
> Scorecards and stats from this tie >
Battle of the Captains begins with a big gamble
>Mathieu puts visitors in front
> The expected score but by a remarkable route

Interviews:
Interview with Igor Andreev and Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) (MP3 format)
Interview with Sebastien Grosjean and Michael Llodra (FRA) (MP3 format

Day 1 Davis Cup

2007-04-06T23:03:00.000+01:00

Score:
Russia - France 1-1:
Davydenko - Mathieu: 62 26 16 57 (lost)
Youhzny - Gasquet: 63 63 67 57 75

I found some articles on the Davis Cup site, about the just played matches

For the link: http://www.daviscup.com/news/matchreport.asp?id=14172

The expected score but by a remarkable route

By a strange and somewhat circuitous route, Russia and France end the opening day all square, but few would have predicted the two results – and the remarkable performances that went with them – that created the overnight 1-1 score.First France’s Paul-Henri Mathieu beat Nikolay Davydenko in four sets after a disastrous start. Then Mikhail Youzhny beat Richard Gasquet in five, two-and-a-half hours after having his first match point in a contest which saw both players dig deep for their country.After 34 minutes of the opening singles, Mathieu looked out of his depth. He was being penned two metres behind his baseline, and Davydenko was directing everything. But the Russian world No 1 is a confidence player, and once he lost a couple of long rallies to drop serve for 0-2 in the second, his belief began to evaporate. At the same time, Mathieu’s confidence grew, and the Frenchman cruised to a 2-1 lead.
Mathieu seals victory in front of the "Moscoutaires"But in the fourth set, the Russian started to get back. He found his range again, and after making good a 2-4 deficit, looked set to expose Mathieu’s mental frailties in sight of victory. But Mathieu held firm when serving at 4-5, broke for 6-5 when Davydenko’s unforced errors returned, and was the more solid in a long rally on the final point, which ended when a Davydenko backhand went wide. It gave the 56th ranked Mathieu a 26 62 61 75 victory, much to the delight of the couple of hundred blue-clad French fans, who have christened themselves the “Moscoutaires” for this tie (the English would be “Moscowteers”).“It was a fantastic win and I’m very happy,” said Mathieu, “but I don’t want to take it out of context. The greatest victory would be to beat Roger Federer at Wimbledon, and this wasn’t that, and I also felt the atmosphere in the stadium was better when I beat Moya in Alicante [in the 2004 semifinals] than it was today. But it’s still a great win for me, and I’m very happy.”Gasquet looked strangely subdued in going two sets down to Youzhny. He lost his first two service games to love, and only got going in the third set. But as Youzhny began to get cramps, the Russian stumbled when chasing a wide backhand, and seemed to injure his knee. Still he worked himself to two match points at 6-5 15-40 on the Gasquet serve, and dumped a forehand dropshot into the net on the first of them with Gasquet stranded. The Russian led the tiebreak 5-2 and had two more match points, before Gasquet took the breaker 10-8.

Youzhny could barely move but it confused Gasquet

Cue dramatic fourth and fifth sets. In the fourth Youzhny looked on the point of retiring. He could barely move, and was giving Gasquet no pace, slicing off every backhand. But it worked. Gasquet seemed to have no answer to it, and only a poor 12th game from Youzhny allowed Gasquet to take the match into a fifth set.Though the cramps had gone, Youzhny looked the weaker in the fifth. He also looked to have missed his chance when he squandered three break points in the 11th game, but he broke in the 13th, and served out the victory, winning 62 63 67(8) 57 86 in four hours 48 minutes as Gasquet netted a backhand – after having his first match point after two hours 18!“I think I was trying to win too fast,” said Youzhny about his missed match points in the third set. Whether he will be able to take any further part in the tie remains to be seen – he will have to review his fitness on Saturday morning. But he’s not worried by the prospect of having done his bit. “We have a strong team,” he said, “so if one of us is too tired and needs to withdraw from a match, we can still win.”

For the interviews from today:

Interview with Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) (MP3 format)
Interview with Richard Gasquet (FRA) (MP3 format)
Interview with Guy Forget (FRA) (MP3 format

Other information:

Related Links on other websites

> Information from RTF

> Infos en francais - FFT

Related Links on Daviscup.com

> Mathieu puts visitors in front

> Battle of the Captains begins with a big gamble

> Tie Information

> Scorecards and stats from this tie

Recent pictures

2007-04-05T14:00:00.000+01:00

DC news

2007-04-05T13:54:00.000+01:00

From the origanal Davis Cup site (http://www.daviscup.com/news/newsarticle.asp?id=14156) ,
another article.

Battle of the Captains begins with a big gamble

When two countries have played each other four times in five years, they ought to know each other fairly well. That familiarity explains one of the biggest Davis Cup gambles of the year that the French captain Guy Forget pulled off at the draw for his team’s quarterfinal against Russia.Forget had originally named a squad of five players, and most people had expected the final choice to be between Paul-Henri Mathieu and Sebastien Grosjean. But Forget has picked both men and left out Arnaud Clement. It strengthens his singles line-up but at the cost of weakening his doubles team.With Russia having decided to leave out the heroes of February’s away triumph in Chile, Marat Safin and Igor Andreev, from the opening day’s action, it leaves the draw for this tactically fascinating tie as:Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) v Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA)Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) v Richard Gasquet (FRA)Sebastien Grosjean/Michael Llodra (FRA) v Igor Andreev/Marat Safin (RUS)Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) v Richard Gasquet (FRA)Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) v Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA)“I wanted to do something different this time,” said Forget in explaining his decision. “We lost the last three times we played them, but we won the doubles every time, and we ran out of gas on the last day. So I wanted to have the option of throwing in somebody fresh on Sunday, that’s how the Russian team have beaten us many times. The doubles team I have isn’t as consistent as Arnaud and Michael would have been, but what’s important is not to win the doubles, but to win the tie. You have to take risks sometimes, and I’m very comfortable with my choice right now.”
Both captains are wilyBut Forget is not the only wily captain in this tie. His opposite number Shamil Tarpischev is Forget’s tactical equal, and clearly took the French by surprise by nominating Mikhail Youzhny for the first day’s singles. Richard Gasquet admitted to having psyched himself up to play Safin, but the task facing him might be easier than if Safin had played. Yet Gasquet, who made his Davis Cup debut in Moscow in the 2005 quarterfinals, admits to feeling the pressure if the opening singles is lost, so if Nikolay Davydenko beats Mathieu as expected, Youzhny could have the psychological advantage.Forget’s comments, along with Russia’s decision to leave Safin and Andreev out of Friday’s action, suggests the scheduled line-up for Sunday may well change. Gasquet is likely to play the first reverse singles for France, but the other three players cannot assume they will have an on-court role.
Mathieu probably won't play fifth rubberDespite being ranked 235, Andreev played superbly on the clay of La Serena when Russia beat Chile two months ago so offers Tarpischev an attractive option, and Forget is likely to want to keep Mathieu out of a fifth rubber, given that he has twice played a live fifth and twice lost – both of them against Russia.In September’s semifinals, the winners here will face the winner of the tie in Ostend between Belgium and Germany.

Related Links on other websites > Information from RTF> Infos en francais - FFT

Related Links on Daviscup.com > Tie Information> Scorecards and stats from this tie

Interview with Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) (MP3 format)
Interview with Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA) (MP3 format)
Interview with Richard Gasquet (FRA) (MP3 format)
Interview with Guy Forget (FRA) (MP3 format)
Interview with Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) (MP3 format)

Video about draw announcing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsDDpRaJsaA

Video Davis Cup

2007-04-05T11:12:00.000+01:00

I found a video on a forum. It´s about the Davis Cup, quarters between Russia-France.
It´s all in Russian, but from what I´ve heard, Marat says that he thinks Gasquet is the strongest one and that France thinks the first day is the deciding one.

http://www.dailymotion.com/sportvideos/video/2727322

(copy and paste if it doesn´t work)

Davis Cup draw

2007-04-05T11:10:00.000+01:00

The draw has been made for the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas World Group quarterfinal tie between Russia and France in Moscow:

Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) v Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA)
Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) v Richard Gasquet (FRA)
Igor Andreev/Marat Safin (RUS) v Sebastien Grosjean/Michael Llodra (FRA)
Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) v Richard Gasquet (FRA)
Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) v Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA)

Marat only plays singles for now. But as you know, they can change the draws at DC!

For live-scoring: http://ls.daviscup.com/dc/2007/WG/qf/launch.asp?tie=100008934

Go Russia!

Davis Cup information

2007-04-04T19:57:00.001+01:00

Russia - France, Moscow

Russian team: French team:

Safin Gasquet

Davydenko Clement

Youzhny Llodra

Andreev Mathieu

captain: Tarpischev captain: Forget

Tïe preview

Last year, France fell to eventual champion Russia in the quarterfinals for the second successive year and face them again this weekend for the seventh time in Davis Cup history. Their biggest and most memorable Davis Cup clash came in 2002 when they met in the final at the Paris Omnisports Paris Bercy. Mikhail Youzhny was the hero of that final, coming back from two-sets-to-love down against Paul Mathieu in the decisive fifth rubber giving Russia its first Davis Cup title.

Head-to-head: Russia 4 - France 2 (4-2)

TV schedule

France Televisions
Day 1 : Friday 6th April
France 3 & 4 1200 - 1540 local (1000 - 1340 GMT) LIVE
Day 2 : Saturday 7th April
France 2 1320 - 1545 local (1120 - 1345 GMT) LIVE
Day 3 : Sunday 8th April
France 3 & 4 1200 - 1751 local (1000 - 1551 GMT) LIVE

RTR
Day 1 : Friday 6th April
1752 - 2137 local (1352 - 1737 GMT) DELAYED BROADCAST
Day 2 : Saturday 7th April
2158 - 0009 local (1758 - 2009 GMT) DELAYED BROADCAST
Day 3 : Sunday 8th April
1914 - 2125 local (1514 - 1725 GMT) DELAYED BROADCAST0124 - 0250 local (2124 - 2250 GMT) DELAYED BROADCAST

For tickets:

1st category tickets Friday 6000 Saturday 5000 - Sunday 6000 - 3 day ticket 15000

2nd category tickets Friday 2500 Saturday 2000 - Sunday 2500

3rd category tickets Friday 800 Saturday 600 - Sunday 800

4th category tickets Friday 250 Saturday 200 - Sunday 250

VIP tickets Friday 12000 Saturday 10000 - Sunday 12000 - 3 day tickets 32000
Tel: +7 495 956 3360Website: http://www.tennis-russia.ru

Team picture

2007-04-04T10:27:00.000+01:00

Click to enlarge!

Updates

2007-04-04T09:57:00.000+01:00

Hi guys!
Are you still there? Please leave some messages in my Chat box! I feel so lonely all the time, hehe!

Here some recent Davis Cup articles! Hope you like it!

I found an article about France looking up to Russia: http://www.fft.fr/coupe-davis/2007/russie-france/?id=2673
It's in French but I translated it..Hope it's ok!

The President of the French Federation of Tennis measures the difficulty of the task which awaits the team from France in Moscow vis-a-vis in Russia. He estimates nevertheless that the Blue ones (blue ones are the French) donot have a complex to nourish.

President, Russia is holding of the title out of Davis Cut. Ithas a tank impressing players of very high level. Is this, accordingto you, the best team in the world currently?
The Russian team is with the image even of Russia, a nation of great sporting and richtradition of important human resources. Its captain, Shamil Tarpischevcan thus count on many players of very great class. Nikolay Davydenko,Marat Safin and Mikhail Youzhny appear among the best of the world andas for Dimtry Tursunov, however classified in the neighbourhoods ofthe twentieth world place, it was not even retained. Obviously, fewnations, except perhaps Spain with Nadal, Robredo, Ferrero or Toshoe, have at their disposal as many players of great quality, intosimple as in double. The results are eloquent besides: Russia hasgained by twice the Davis Cut and is unconquered in residence fornow eleven years!

France finds Russia in quarterfinals for the third time in threeyears. After having undergone two failures these two last years, doesthe team of France have this time the means according to you ofbeating this frightening team? And how will it have there to becaught?
Nobody is not unaware of the difficulty which awaits the teamof France, but each time that it was opposed to a nation announcedlike largely favorite, it found in this unfavourable context anadditional motivation. I thus believe that the team of France has themeans of opposing this Russian formation, even on the Muscovite beatenground. For that, each one of our players will have to approach thisquarterfinal in full possession of its means. Richard Gasquet iscompletely able to carry out several exploits at the time of thismeeting, because it plays brilliantly on beaten ground. As forPaul-Henri Mathieu, his rise to power these last weeks allied with itsnatural talent, can encourage us with optimism. Lastly, once again,the point of the double will be capital for our team. But to claim tobeat Russia in residence, it will obviously be necessary to manage totranscend itself.

Guy Forget privileged the experiment to compose his team. It seemsthat the selection was difficult to make the level of the Frenchtennismen so much is homogeneous...
To date, twelve of ourrepresentatives appear among the hundred best players of the world. Itis an overall performance of which the federation can be enorgueillir.This density must make it possible to the captain to train a powerfulteam, whatever the adversaries, indicated surface or the state of formof the applicants to the selection. A situation that did not alwaysknow its predecessors who had at the time good less possibilities. Infact, the choice was simpler... But we surely will not feel sorry forwe of the current situation because it is the fruit of a work and apolicy. France is a great nation of the sport and tennis inparticular. Consequently, we must maintain our row by fixing us of theobjectives. The team of France must from now on approach each editionwith the ambition to reconquer a new Davis Cut as soon aspossible.

Here another article, actually it's a sort of blog, but here it is: http://www.sports.ru/section.html?docid=560165
This is in Russian, but I translated this aswell. Now don't think I'm a nerd who speaks every language, but you can translated these things on a certain website.

To the battle! The trainer men's team Russia on tennis Aleksandrvolkov renews his blog to the "sport today" by story about thepreparation of our command for the chetvert'final'nomu match ofDavis's goblet against team France. Large regards to all amateurs oftennis. It is glad to again tell you about the preparation of ourcommand for Davis's goblet. To regret, during the match with theChileans there was such possibility not. Themselves you understand,game was extremely heavy, and for me it was necessary completely to beconcentrated on the work, it remained not the minute of free time. Iwill try to now a little compensate my "vow of silence" and beforedescribing about the preparation for the match with the Frenchmen, Iwill return for a month and a half back.
We were actually not favorites in that match - and in this, probablyentire charm of Davis's goblet. The champion of past year already inthe first opposition can accumulate authorities, if above heads doesnot jump. But not only this became the guarantee of our victory abovethe Chileans. Status of favorites played with latinoamerikantsami eviljoke. All were assured that at home under the leadership thatmagnificently begun season Gonzalez's Fernando the Chileans simplywill sweep us from the way. They even undercoat selected with thesight to the fact that in the following round itself with theFrenchmen had play. But, as is evident, burnt out these hot Chileanchildren. As soon as something was not obtained, they began to benervous, to fuss. We, on the contrary, were absolutely calm. Fromchildren no one required victory, task was one - play well, by itsforce. I count, the psychological aspect of match became decisive.
Many think that now, before chetvert'finalom with the Frenchmen,already to us is prepared the role of the favorites: we play houses,we know rival well, last years we beat all his regularly, strongestplayers of our composite arrived. But pover'te, no one intends tounderestimate Frenchmen. The overall mood in the command such - therewill be the heaviest match, battle, and it is good, if we win it withcalculation 3:2. Why 4 so I count, in more detail I will explain in myfollowing post, when I will tell about the rivals. I today want morethan attention to give to our children.
In "luzhnikakh" we are trained already several days. Composition ofour command to the forthcoming match of such: Marat Safin, Nikolaidavydenko, Igor Andreev, Mikhail yuzhnyy. As the spare are declaredYevgeny Korolev and Dmitriy tursunov. But Mitya play not will be. Itas before suffers with the injury of wrist, although it vomited toarrive in order to morally support command. This, by the way, to theconversation about that which someone allegedly greatly does not wantto speak in favor of composite. After Nikolai davydenko and Mishasouthern they asked not to cause to the match with the Chileans, whatto only hear them it did not be necessary: and Davydenko to somethingit offended, and southern so not somehow otblagodarili after lastyear's finale. All this - complete nonsense. Very complex season is inprospect for children, Cole it is necessary to prove the nonrandomnessof its third place in rating ATP on the sums of past year, and Tomishe in this rating itself to rise, after it passed half of pastseason because of the injury. Children not iron and therefore askedShamilya Of anvyarovicha to one match not to cause them into thecomposite. And our captain without questions went towards, because heknew, by whom and as to replace them. And the fact that now in thecommand all strongest and not whom of them, except Tursunova mentionedalready, does not have injuries, in many respects is predeterminedthus by the solution Of tarpishcheva.
The first task after all children were gathered in Moscow, it was asfast as possible to acclimatize them to the soil, on which will passthe match. Since all last tournaments were played on kharde, thisseemed by complex task, but it is already practically solved. ForSafina the passage from kharda completely proved to be long-awaited -Marat does not already greatly love a series of spring tournaments inthe states on this coating. For some reason there it please themselvesneither weather nor Kort nor rivals. To Miami already in the firstcircle it was necessary to play with the inconvenient SpaniardFelisiano to Lopez. And Marat again lost to it, already fourth time.Well, nothing, he will be recycled on this defeat: it rested, thatbecome cooler arrived into the composite and as before much jokes.
But here guess, who more than all now does lay out herself on thetrainings? Splitting Davydenko. This again to a question about themotivation with the appearances for the composite. It vomits andthrows simply. And now it to us considerably greater is necessary,than in the same match with Chile. Splitting especially it knows howwell to play in the halls and, if health does not bring (tot'fu-t'fu-t'fu), greatly us it will help.
In Mishi south outstanding chance to play - especially the pair,which, as in the final match with Argentina, in my opinion, it will beonly whether not the decisive match. Now a little it returned afterseveral very successful tournaments Of misha. 4 with it he talked andunderstood that by reason to this there was the commonplace fatigue,it was trace by which now already barely evidently. It is confident -,also, with the Frenchmen, and it is later, in the stage, southern usyet repeatedly will strongly gladden.
Well and in conclusion - about our hero Igor Andreev. A little eviljoke, of course, they played with the fellow these magical victoriesabove Gonzalez and Massa. From one side, added the confidences, withanother - they improbably depleted both psychologically andphysically. For long it could not arrive into itself, and failure atthe last tournaments to that by confirmation. But Igor is very strongby spirit, nerves in it - give God. Now already completely it wererestored, and, takeing into account its special love for the soil, inno way I will astonish, if precisely Igor again becomes the main heroof our composite in the match with the Frenchmen.

I found another article on a forum. But this was hard for the website I have to translate, that's probably a reason for the many errors! http://www.kp.ru/daily/23880/65459/ Some of the sentences are a scription for a picture. The pics are below, which belong to this article.

Safin went against the father before the match of Davis's gobletRussia - France our tennis-players they were mixed in the footballfield from gigantic sportkompleksa "Olympic" large tennis it moved tothe small sport arena Of "luzhniki". However, ground Kort sosuccessfully lay, where very recently was chopped hockey "dynamo",that the doubts, caused by the selection of area, fell by themselves.Compact hall, outstanding survey - eight thousand spectators, who willfor sure fill MSA into the nearest output, will be convenient.
Tarpishchev - southern (to the left): - you today I will learn to beatwithout the racket along the ball!
True, into the past output area thus far only led to the mind,attempting to give to brutal'noy hockey arena tennis gloss. Among thisseething building our tennis-players, who arrived in Moscow in goodtime, actively were trained. Were trained only once a day, but withthe complete return. Marat Safin did not stint on his sparring-partner of Artur Chernov. However, 18- summer Artur, in the worldrating the only 1245- e place, the moshchneyshiye impacts of Maratrepulsed confidently. They speak, from properly being opened thistalented fellow prevent only injuries. Not randomly the captain teamRussia Shamil' Of tarpishchev drew Artur to the work with our mainstars.

Marat - to dad: - in the commands of different we, otherwise you wouldsupply with transfer... Safin- elder - to son: - it did guess on your face - was readypass to return to father?
Next day on Kort soloed southern, best, by the way, our tennis-playeraccording to the results of present season. Helped Mikhail Igorkunitsyn, all the same Chernov and trainer of team Aleksandr volkov.The latter so recklessly peeled on the ball, that Tarpishchev, lookingat its 40- summer assistant, with satisfaction khmyknul: "it is Volkovto Davis's goblet it is ready!"
In contrast to Safina, which appeared the day before too gloomy, insouth comrades the mood was excellent. Remembering about the fact thatthe training fell out to the first of April, Mishu they attempted todumbfound: "one yellow newspaper wrote that you did an operation onthe change of floor!" "article inattentively you read! - with thesmile it was Mikhail. - it is there written, that the operation onlyis planned and it will be made after victory in Davis's goblet ".
To the football Marat rolled on elegant sport "Moers". Under thecowling of this machine is hidden not less than 300 "horses", thathelp Safinu not to be late to the trainings.
In the pauses between the drawings the tennis-players activelydiscussed the passed the day before football matches of thechampionship of Russia. "classics! - vozbuzhdenno shared hisimpressions about the game OF THE TSSKA (CENTRAL SPORTS CLUB OF THEARMY) - "locomotive" the southern, large worshipper of line soldiers.- they immediately drove in, and under the curtain one more in orderto finish game quietly ".
Conversations about the football were, as it was explained, they werenot by chance. After training all left to chase ball for adjacent withthe small arena football field. For this case on the luxurious sport"Mercedes- sleeping compartment" by the cost not less than $150 000rolled Safin, although it should it was be trained during this day.
Tennis get-together was divided by two commands, which conditionallyit was possible to name "young" and "old men". In the first soloedsouthern, Andreev and Safin, the secondly shone Tarpishchev, wasVolkov, Leonyuk, and also the father of Marat Mikhail safin. Thecerebral center of "old men" was Tarpishchev, with dagger transferscut the defense of "young". Those answered speed and "physics", butdue to vysochennogo Safina, which worked out on the "second floor" notworse than its friend Of bulykina (into the good him, it goes withoutsaying, years), the "growing up generation" it confidently re-playedelder comrades in air. As a result they conquered "young and zealous",moreover with the completely tennis calculation - 6:4.

Updates & More

2007-03-29T19:45:00.000+01:00

Hi guys,

I've updated my blog now. News, articles and pics are below!
Also for some more information, live-scoring and more: see the links of several website in the left below.

I also found this report on a certain forum. It's from a girl who was at Miami and she also took pictures of the match. Have a look!

http://www.guyfromrussia.proboards48.com/index.cgi?board=fanreports&action=display&thread=1175099413&page=1

(copy and paste if it's not working)

Keep the faith!

Kisses

Pictures

2007-03-27T20:52:00.000+01:00

Here some pictures who are taken when he was pracising in Miami, before loosing to Lopez.
For the link: http://maratsafin.com/content.php?did=9&aid=de34f4ae13c456155d0beb54f807ac35 This link has many more pictures from tournaments before. You should have a look!